More than 25,000 health app users have provided 40,000-plus responses to questions about coronavirus behaviour and respect for Government guidelines, in a project aimed at generating a UK COVID symptom map. Analysis has shown that the number exhibiting symptoms increased by 2.3% weekend to weekend, while stay-at-home numbers have risen from 53% to 89% pre- and -post lockdown.
The data, based on 25,548 responses from Evergreen Life health app users, shows that at Friday March 27th, 10.4% of respondents reported having the symptoms consistent with COVID-19, up from 8.1% in the initial survey on Sunday, March 22, 2020, before lockdown was announced.
Before lockdown, 53% with symptoms were staying at home and after lockdown 89% with symptoms are reporting they are staying at home – showing that the overwhelming majority of those with symptoms are now acting on government advice to self-isolate.
The data is being shared with leading universities and to help the NHS.
Data scientists from institutions including the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester are working with Evergreen Life to analyse the results gained from users of its NHS-assured app to help feed this into the national planning and coordination efforts. Researchers at the University of Liverpool’s Liverpool Malawi COVID19 taskforce (#Liverpool_Malawi_COVID19) are working within national public health measures.
Dr Ian Hall, Reader in Mathematical Statistics at The University of Manchester says: “Evergreen users are supporting a better understanding of the local experience of COVID19 disease through sharing their data which will be incredibly useful to national and local planning. This is an exciting emerging data stream, and I look forward to helping interpret the data, with colleagues in Manchester and Liverpool, as it provides situational awareness to users and policy makers alike.”
Evergreen Life CEO Stephen Critchlow says: “We’ve asked our 750,000 users to help build a symptom heat map of those with symptoms of COVID-19 to help the NHS and researchers better understand how the virus is moving and spreading around the UK. We’ve already heard from over 25,000 people and the questionnaire has been completed over 40,000 times. We have compared the situation before and after lockdown. It shows that while many more people are now staying at home, the number of people reporting symptoms has risen from 8.1% to 10.4%.”
Users of the app, available from app stores, are being asked to report if they are self-isolating, have a dry cough or a temperature. The anonymised data is being used to create a national picture of those reporting symptoms. People will also be asked to report when they recover to enable further data analysis as the outbreak progresses. App users are also sent personalised information on national guidance, to support them, and optimise their wellbeing. The platform will also be offered to give the special advice from the NHS for users within the 1.5m people with the greatest risk of complications.
Evergreen Life has been working with the NHS since 2015 delivering and supporting an NHS-assured patient-facing app. This makes it uniquely placed to create the heat map because users can access their NHS records as well as record their own health and wellbeing data, all in a single place.