- Title
- Digital contact tracing technologies in epidemics: a rapid review
- Creator
- Anglemyer, Andrew; Moore, Theresa H. M.; Parker, Lisa; Chambers, Timothy; Grady, Alice; Chiu, Kellia; Parry, Matthew; Wilczynska, Magdalena; Flemyng, Ella; Bero, Lisa
- Relation
- Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews Vol. -, Issue 8, no. CD013699
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD013699
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2020
- Description
- Background: Reducing the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) is a global priority. Contact tracing identifies people who were recently in contact with an infected individual, in order to isolate them and reduce further transmission. Digital technology could be implemented to augment and accelerate manual contact tracing. Digital tools for contact tracing may be grouped into three areas: 1) outbreak response; 2) proximity tracing; and 3) symptom tracking. We conducted a rapid review on the effectiveness of digital solutions to contact tracing during infectious disease outbreaks. Objectives: To assess the benefits, harms, and acceptability of personal digital contact tracing solutions for identifying contacts of an identified positive case of an infectious disease. Search methods: An information specialist searched the literature from 1 January 2000 to 5 May 2020 in CENTRAL, MEDLINE, and Embase. Additionally, we screened the Cochrane COVID‐19 Study Register. Selection criteria: We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs), cluster‐RCTs, quasi‐RCTs, cohort studies, cross‐sectional studies and modelling studies, in general populations. We preferentially included studies of contact tracing during infectious disease outbreaks (including COVID‐19, Ebola, tuberculosis, severe acute respiratory syndrome virus, and Middle East respiratory syndrome) as direct evidence, but considered comparative studies of contact tracing outside an outbreak as indirect evidence. The digital solutions varied but typically included software (or firmware) for users to install on their devices or to be uploaded to devices provided by governments or third parties. Control measures included traditional or manual contact tracing, self‐reported diaries and surveys, interviews, other standard methods for determining close contacts, and other technologies compared to digital solutions (e.g. electronic medical records). Data collection and analysis: Two review authors independently screened records and all potentially relevant full‐text publications. One review author extracted data for 50% of the included studies, another extracted data for the remaining 50%; the second review author checked all the extracted data. One review author assessed quality of included studies and a second checked the assessments. Our outcomes were identification of secondary cases and close contacts, time to complete contact tracing, acceptability and accessibility issues, privacy and safety concerns, and any other ethical issue identified. Though modelling studies will predict estimates of the effects of different contact tracing solutions on outcomes of interest, cohort studies provide empirically measured estimates of the effects of different contact tracing solutions on outcomes of interest. We used GRADE‐CERQual to describe certainty of evidence from qualitative data and GRADE for modelling and cohort studies. Main results: We identified six cohort studies reporting quantitative data and six modelling studies reporting simulations of digital solutions for contact tracing. Two cohort studies also provided qualitative data. Three cohort studies looked at contact tracing during an outbreak, whilst three emulated an outbreak in non‐outbreak settings (schools). Of the six modelling studies, four evaluated digital solutions for contact tracing in simulated COVID‐19 scenarios, while two simulated close contacts in non‐specific outbreak settings.
- Subject
- Botswana; cohort studies; contact tracing; coronavirus infections; COVID-19; disease outbreaks; hemorrhagic fever; SDG 3; SDG 9; Sustainable Development Goals
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1464259
- Identifier
- uon:46946
- Identifier
- ISSN:1469-493X
- Language
- eng
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