TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ibrahim, Ahmed
AU  - Zhang, Heng
AU  - Clinch, Sarah
AU  - Poliakoff, Ellen
AU  - Parsia, Bijan
AU  - Harper, Simon
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/5/27
TI  - Digital Phenotypes for Understanding Individuals' Compliance With COVID-19 Policies and Personalized Nudges: Longitudinal Observational Study
JO  - JMIR Form Res
SP  - e23461
VL  - 5
IS  - 5
KW  - behavior
KW  - compliance
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - digital phenotyping
KW  - nudges
KW  - personalization
KW  - policy
KW  - sensor
KW  - smartphone
AB  - Background: Governments promote behavioral policies such as social distancing and phased reopening to control the spread of COVID-19. Digital phenotyping helps promote the compliance with these policies through the personalized behavioral knowledge it produces. Objective: This study investigated the value of smartphone-derived digital phenotypes in (1) analyzing individuals’ compliance with COVID-19 policies through behavioral responses and (2) suggesting ways to personalize communication through those policies. Methods: We conducted longitudinal experiments that started before the outbreak of COVID-19 and continued during the pandemic. A total of 16 participants were recruited before the pandemic, and a smartphone sensing app was installed for each of them. We then assessed individual compliance with COVID-19 policies and their impact on habitual behaviors. Results: Our results show a significant change in people’s mobility (P<.001) as a result of COVID-19 regulations, from an average of 10 visited places every week to approximately 2 places a week. We also discussed our results within the context of nudges used by the National Health Service in the United Kingdom to promote COVID-19 regulations. Conclusions: Our findings show that digital phenotyping has substantial value in understanding people’s behavior during a pandemic. Behavioral features extracted from digital phenotypes can facilitate the personalization of and compliance with behavioral policies. A rule-based messaging system can be implemented to deliver nudges on the basis of digital phenotyping. 
SN  - 2561-326X
UR  - https://formative.jmir.org/2021/5/e23461
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/23461
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33999832
DO  - 10.2196/23461
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/23461
ER  -