OBJECTIVES: Technology plays a tremendous role in the active surveillance and communication in COVID-19 containment. We estimate the perceptions of medical and technology university students from India towards the use of Arogya Setu mobile application developed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

METHODS: An online cross-sectional survey, using a quick snowball sampling was conducted among total of 445 professional students randomly selected from Indian state of Kerala, including 234 and 211 from medical and technology universities respectively. The study was conducted during the month of May 2020, by disseminating the questionnaire in the social media platforms.

RESULTS: Among the study participants, majority (411; 92.3%) belong to an age category less than 25 years and with a male preponderance of 54.6% (43). Out of the 97.9% (436) students who were aware of the Arogya Setu app, only a very few number (46; 10.3%) downloaded the app. While most of the participants choose television news, social media and print news (23.6%, 45.1%, and 12.2% respectively) for COVID-19 related information, hardly any had opted Arogya Setu. Data privacy (231; 51.9%) and low quality use interface (62; 13.9%) were reported as the main reasons for ignoring the use of the app. It was found that 288 (64.7%) students had taken a self-assessment test with majority from medical background (174; 39.1%). No significant association was observed with the use of Arogya Setu across age, sex or place of living. In contrast, place of living was significantly associated with the source of information regarding COVID-19 (p =0.007).

CONCLUSIONS: Participatory surveillance applications like Arogya Setu are crucial in providing insights of infection distribution data to control the community transmission of COVID-19. An appropriate user interface, engaging content and proper awareness regarding the application may boost the use among the students as well as professionals.