Researchers at NUI Galway and University of Limerick are looking for members of the public and smartphone users to participate in a study on attitudes to the use of a Covid-19 contact tracing app.
Of the 2.2 million people who have registered with the HSE Covid tracker app, only 1.3 million are using it, including more than one third of over 16s.
Now as the country exits level five public health restrictions in the run up to Christmas, the research team says it is more important than ever to better understand acceptance and reservations behind the use of the tracker app and data.
Dr Jane Walsh of NUI Galway's School of Psychology, now wants to hear from users of the app to get their feedback in order to learn from their experiences.
"We are particularly interested to hear from people who have reservations about a tracker app and the use of data.”
Dr Mike O’Callaghan, GP and Research Fellow at UL, says the main aim of the study is to establish people’s knowledge of contact tracing, and if the public would find a software app, as described, to be acceptable during the pandemic.”
Manzar Abbas, PhD Scholar at software research centre LERO at UL, said: “All of our research is being recorded anonymously so, if you are using, or if you have used, the digital contact tracing app since it was launched and you have some reservations around it we would like to record your feedback and try to improve the shortcomings.”
The research team is seeking up to 30 people aged 18 or over to take part in the survey. Participants will be asked to take part in a phone interview which would last 30-40 minutes.
Interested members of the public please contact [email protected].
