Abstract
Purpose:
Describe preferences toward COVID-19 testing features (method, location, hypothetical monetary incentive) and simulate the effect of monetary incentives on willingness to test.
Design:
Online cross-sectional survey administered in July 2020.
Subjects:
1,505 nationally representative U.S. respondents.
Measures:
Choice of preferred COVID-19 testing options in discrete choice experiment. Options differed by method (nasal-swab, saliva), location (hospital/clinic, drive-through, at-home), and monetary incentive ($0, $10, $20).
Analysis:
Latent class conditional logit model to classify preferences, mixed logit model to simulate incentive effectiveness.
Results:
Preferences were categorized into 4 groups: 34% (n = 517) considered testing comfort (saliva versus nasal swab) most important, 27% (n = 408) were willing to trade comfort for monetary incentives, 19% (n = 287) would only test at convenient locations, 20% (n = 293) avoided testing altogether. Relative to no monetary incentives, incentives of $100 increased the percent of testing avoiders (16%) and convenience seekers (70%) that were willing to test.
Conclusion:
Preferences toward different COVID-19 testing features vary, highlighting the need to match testing features with individuals to monitor the spread of COVID-19.
Keywords
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Supplementary Material
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