The Aarogya Setu (ASA) is an open-source Indian smartphone application for contact tracing developed by the government of India.
Objective
To determine the sociodemographic determinants of the use of the ASA among participants of two consecutive rounds of a state-wide seroepidemiological study.
Methods
We analyzed secondary data of participants aged ≥16 years from the dataset of a repeated cross-sectional serosurvey conducted during August-September 2020 in Delhi, India. The participants reported on whether they had installed the ASA which was subsequently verified by assessing the app status on their mobile phones’. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results
The Aarogya Setu application (ASA) was currently installed by 7437 (58.3%, 95% C.I. 57.4, 59.1, missing = 533) and 7,997 (55.6%, 95% C.I. 54.8, 56.4, missing = 566) participants during August and September, respectively. The mean (SD) age of the participants was 37.5 (14.6) years including 47.4% males and 52.6% females. The lack of a smartphone was reported by 17.3% of participants. On binary logistic regression analysis, the absence of ASA installation was independently associated with age≥40, female gender, lesser years of education, and lower per capita income.
Conclusions
High acceptability of the Aarogya Setu contact tracing mobile phone application was observed in the residents of Delhi. Furthermore, the barriers in utilization of the associated technology were predominantly explained by the socioeconomic, educational and digital divide.
