Table 1.
Participant characteristics, concerns regarding the COVID-19 contact tracing application, and level of trust in the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare among participants who owned a smartphone (n = 1682).
| Total |
COVID-19 contact tracing application users∗ |
COVID-19 contact tracing application non-users |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N = 1682 |
N = 429 (25.5%) |
N = 1253 (74.5%) |
||||
| n | n (%) | n (%) | p-valuea | |||
| Sex (men) | 811 | 232 | 28.6 | 579 | 71.4 | 0.005 |
| Age | ||||||
| 20–29 years | 231 | 54 | 23.4 | 177 | 76.6 | 0.571 |
| 30–39 years | 292 | 74 | 25.3 | 218 | 74.7 | |
| 40–49 years | 303 | 82 | 27.1 | 221 | 72.9 | |
| 50–59 years | 310 | 69 | 22.3 | 241 | 77.7 | |
| 60–69 years | 297 | 83 | 27.9 | 214 | 72.1 | |
| 70–79 years | 249 | 67 | 26.9 | 182 | 73.1 | |
| Smoking (smokers) | 252 | 59 | 23.4 | 193 | 76.6 | 0.408 |
| Underlying diseasesb (yes) | 424 | 108 | 25.5 | 316 | 74.5 | 0.985 |
| Marital status (married) | 1020 | 276 | 27.1 | 744 | 72.9 | 0.070 |
| Employment status (working) | 1118 | 313 | 28.0 | 805 | 72.0 | 0.001 |
| Residential area (metropolitan areac) | 1533 | 403 | 26.3 | 1130 | 73.7 | 0.018 |
| Living arrangement (with others) | 1364 | 341 | 25.0 | 1023 | 75.0 | 0.325 |
| Educational attainment (university graduate or above) | 912 | 261 | 28.6 | 651 | 71.4 | 0.001 |
| Annual personal income | ||||||
| <2 million yen [approximately 19,000 USD] | 702 | 146 | 20.8 | 556 | 79.2 | <0.001 |
| 2-<4 million yen [19,000 -< 38,000] | 430 | 101 | 23.5 | 329 | 76.5 | |
| 4-<6 million yen [38,000 -< 57,000] | 274 | 81 | 29.6 | 193 | 70.4 | |
| ≥6 million yen or more [57,000-] | 276 | 101 | 36.6 | 175 | 63.4 | |
| Trust in the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s strategy for COVID-19d | ||||||
| Low | 434 | 93 | 21.4 | 341 | 78.6 | 0.039 |
| Middle | 613 | 156 | 25.4 | 457 | 74.6 | |
| High | 635 | 180 | 28.3 | 455 | 71.7 | |
| Concerns about COVID-19 contact tracing applicatione | ||||||
| Insufficient knowledge of how to use the application (Yes) | 703 | 74 | 10.5 | 629 | 89.5 | <0.001 |
| Concerns about privacy (Yes) | 1056 | 152 | 14.4 | 904 | 85.6 | <0.001 |
| Security concerns (Yes) | 1097 | 168 | 15.3 | 929 | 84.7 | <0.001 |
| Doubt about the effectiveness of apps for preventing spread of infection (Yes) | 1275 | 248 | 19.5 | 1027 | 80.5 | <0.001 |
| Would feel troubled if found to be in contact with an infected person (Yes) | 855 | 185 | 21.6 | 670 | 78.4 | <0.001 |
| Concerns about smartphone battery consumption and communication costs (Yes) | 829 | 140 | 16.9 | 689 | 83.1 | <0.001 |
∗Participants who responded they are using the Japanese COVID-19 contact tracing application (COCOA).
p-value was calculated using chi-square test.
Underlying diseases included heart disease, respiratory disease, kidney disease, diabetes, and hypertension.
Metropolitan area included Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba prefectures.
Participants responded using a 7-point scale to show the level of trust they had in the government’s strategy for COVID-19 (1 = very low trust, 7 = very high trust). When a participant responded with 1–3, 4, or 5–7 on the scale, level of trust in the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare was defined as low, moderate, or high, respectively.
Answers were assessed on a 4-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 4 = strongly agree). A response of 3 or 4 was defined as “having concern” about that matter.