Evaluation of a public COVID-19 dashboard in the Western Cape, South Africa: a tool for communication, trust, and transparency

Abstract

Background: Public health dashboards have been used in the past to communicate and guide local responses to outbreaks, epidemics, and a host of various health conditions. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, dashboards proliferated but the availability and quality differed across the world. This study aimed to evaluate the quality, access, and end-user experience of one such dashboard in the Western Cape province, South Africa.

Methods: We analysed retrospective aggregate data on viewership over time for the first year since launch of the dashboard (30 April 2020 - 29 April 2021) and conducted a cross-sectional survey targeting adult users of the dashboard at one year post the initial launch. The self-administered, anonymous questionnaire with a total of 13 questions was made available via an online digital survey tool for a 2-week period (6 May 2021 - 21 May 2021).

Results: After significant communication by senior provincial political leaders, adequate media coverage and two waves of COVID-19 the Western Cape public COVID-19 dashboard attracted a total of 2,248,456 views during its first year. The majority of these views came from Africa/South Africa with higher median daily views during COVID-19 wave periods. A total of 794 participants responded to the survey questionnaire. Reported devices used to access the dashboard differed statistically between occupational status groups with students tending toward using mobile devices whilst employed and retired participants tending toward using desktop computers/laptops. Frequency of use increases with increasing age with 65.1% of those > 70 years old viewing it daily. Overall, 76.4% of respondents reported that the dashboard influenced their personal planning and behaviour. High Likert score ratings were given for clarity, ease of use and overall end-user experience, with no differences seen across the various age groups surveyed.

Conclusion: The study demonstrated that both the availability of data and an understanding of end-user need is critical when developing and delivering public health tools that may ultimately garner public trust and influence individual behaviour.

Keywords: COVID-19; Dashboard; Data; Digital; Evaluation; Impact; Pandemic; South Africa; Western Cape.

Fig. 1

COVID-19 public dashboard views by continental region

Fig. 2

Number of views per day by COVID-19 wave periods and date. ¹The Shapiro–Wilk test confirmed a non-normal distribution by noting a p-value 0.014 for Initial 2 weeks of launch and < 0.001 for Wave 2. A Kruskal–Wallis test for these non-normally distributed periods showed that there is a significant difference between these categorical variable COVID-19 Wave Periods in relation to the variable Number of Views p =  < 0.001. ²The Shapiro–Wilk test confirmed a normal distribution with p-values of 0.129 for Wave 1, 0.105 for Trough (1), and 0.073 for Trough (2). A one-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA) for these normally distributed periods has shown that there is a significant difference between these categorical variable COVID-19 Wave Periods and the variable Number of views per day F = 164.87, p =  < 0.001

Fig. 3

Proportion devices used by occupational status* (n = 794). ^*p-value from Fisher’s exact test 0.001

Fig. 4

Proportion of viewers by age group and frequency of viewing* (n = 794). ^*p-value from Fisher’s exact test < 0.001

Fig. 5

Reported impact on planning and behaviour by element most often used* (n = 794). ^*p-value from Chi.² test 0.006