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. 2022 Mar 26;5(1):ooac016.
doi: 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooac016. eCollection 2022 Apr.

Assessing and addressing COVID-19 information needs via a weather application

Mollie M McKillop  1 , Courtney VanHouten  1 , Carol Bales  2 , Winnie Felix  1 , Rezzan Hekmat  1 , Gretchen Purcell Jackson  1   3
Affiliations

Assessing and addressing COVID-19 information needs via a weather application

Mollie M McKillop et al. JAMIA Open. .

Abstract

We describe implementation and usage of a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) digital information hub delivered through the widely adopted The Weather Company (TWC) application and explore COVID-19 knowledge, behaviors, and information needs of users. TWC deployed the tool, which displayed local case counts and trends, in March 2020. Unique users, visits, and interactions with tool features were measured. In August 2020, a cross-sectional survey assessed respondent characteristics, COVID-19 knowledge, behaviors, and preferences. TWC COVID-19 hub averaged 1.97 million unique users with over 2.6 million visits daily and an average interaction time of 1.63 min. Respondents reported being knowledgeable about COVID-19 (92.3%) and knowing relevant safety precautions (90.9%). However, an average of 35.3% of respondents reported not increasing preventive practices across behaviors surveyed due to information about COVID-19. In conclusion, we find a free weather application delivered COVID-19 data to millions of Americans. Despite confidence in knowledge and best practices for prevention, over one-third of survey respondents did not increase practice of preventive behaviors due to information about COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; consumer health informatics; consumer health information needs; public health; weather.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
A sample view of the COVID-19 interactive hub (top) and COVID-19 information (bottom). Credit: weather.com, IBM.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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