www.coronabambini.ch: Development and usage of an online decision support tool for pediatric COVID-testing in Switzerland (Preprint)

BACKGROUND To support the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) national pediatric COVID-19 testing strategy, we created an online public health decision tool for caregivers and healthcare workers. OBJECTIVE To describe the development and usage of www.coronabambini.ch as an example of a pediatric electronic public health application and to explore its potential in providing information on disease epidemiology and public health policy implementation. METHODS We developed and maintained a non-commercial online decision support tool, www.coronabambini.ch, based on the FOPH pediatric COVID-19 guidelines around testing and school/daycare attendance. We analyzed the online decision tool as well as a voluntary follow-up survey from October 2020 to September 2021 to explore its potential as a surveillance tool for public health policy and epidemiology. RESULTS 68’269 users accessed the tool and 52’726 filled out the complete online decision tool. 3% (1’399/52’726) filled out a voluntary follow-up survey via mail after 14 days. 92% (18’797/20’330) of users were parents. Certain dynamics of the pandemic and changes in testing strategies were reflected in the data captured by the tool: gastrointestinal symptoms were reported more frequently in the younger age groups (13% (3’308/26’180) in children 0-5 years, 9% (3’934/42’089) in children ≥6years, X 2=184, P=<.001). The proportion of users consulting the tool for a positive contact without symptoms in children 6-12 years increased from 4% (1’415/32’215) to 6% (636/9’872) after the FOPH loosened testing criteria in this age group, X 2=69, P=<.001. Adherence to the recommendation was generally high 84% (1’131/1’352) but differed by the type of recommendation: 89% (344/385) for “stay at home and observe”, 75% (232/310) for “school attendance”, X 2=25, P=<.001. CONCLUSIONS www.coronabambini.ch played a central role during the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland through supporting testing decisions for children. Certain patterns in epidemiology and adherence to public health policy could be depicted showing the potential of digital decision support as public health tools.