Choice experiment evidence on digital participation in sanitation and health campaigns in the Citarum River basin, Indonesia

Abstract

The rapid proliferation of social media platforms has fundamentally transformed the dissemination of public health and environmental messages. However, there remains a paucity of knowledge regarding how citizens value various forms of digital participation in sanitation campaigns. This study explores community preferences for online engagement in sanitation and health initiatives, specifically within the context of the Citarum River basin and Jakarta, Indonesia. A choice experiment utilizing stratified random sampling was designed to capture preferences for three distinct forms of social media interaction: liking, sharing, and commenting, with willingness to participate quantified as digital actions per week per individual. Random parameter logit and latent class models were employed to estimate preferences and uncover heterogeneity among respondents. The results indicate that consistent liking, selective sharing of targeted content, and brief acknowledgment comments were positively and significantly correlated with utility, resulting in substantial willingness to participate values of up to 32 actions/week. Segmentation analysis identified two distinct groups: digital sanitation movers, comprising 89.5% of respondents who actively support sanitation campaigns online, and silent social media viewers, representing 10.5% who exhibited weak and inconsistent engagement. Socio-demographic analysis revealed that digital intensity and campaign awareness were more significant differentiators between these groups than income or education. The findings underscore the pivotal role of location-based features, such as regional hashtags (#CitarumHarum), in enhancing the visibility of sanitation campaigns and integrating them into community identities. Policy implications suggest prioritizing visually engaging, shareable, and locally branded content for the most digitally active citizens, while concurrently developing hybrid online–offline strategies to engage less active groups. This study contributes to the field of digital health geography by elucidating how social media participation can amplify sanitation messaging and address health vulnerabilities within urban and river basin contexts.