Acceptance of self-reporting technologies and self-sampling of biospecimen in infectious disease epidemiology: a survey in Lower Saxony

Introduction: Prospective investigations of human-to-human transmission (HHT) or risk factors for common acute infectious diseases are challenged by their transient nature. mHealth approaches have the potential to facilitate timely capture and microbiological validation of acute infections. Such technologies can also enable location tracking. We investigated the acceptability of mHealth tools to build the basis for the design of future studies. Method: In July 2014, we conducted a survey in two districts of Lower Saxony using the longitudinal panel HaBIDS (Hygiene and Behaviour Infectious Diseases Survey). We in…