Researchers at King’s College London have launched a new symptom tracking app aimed to slow the spread of coronavirus.
The new app which tracks symptoms related to novel coronavirus (COVID-19) allows anyone to self-report daily.
It has been developed as a partnership between researchers at King’s and health data science company ZOE, a spin-out from King’s, and will be widely available to health staff and the general public who wish to contribute to this research. It will also be used by other large population studies in the UK and US.
The aim of the app is to help researchers identify how fast the virus is spreading in your area, the high-risk areas in the country and who is most at risk, to form a better understanding of the symptoms linked to underlying health conditions.
Each day a user will record information about their health, including temperature, tiredness and symptoms such as coughing, breathing problems or headaches.
The app is available to the general public to use, and those part of the study will be sent a home testing kit to better understand what symptoms truly correspond to the coronavirus infection.
Researchers also aim to compare genetically identical twins with non-identical twins, who are as related as regular siblings, to separate the effects of genes from environmental factors such as diet, lifestyle, previous illnesses and infections, and the microbes within the gut (microbiome).
Samples taken from the twin group will be used to generate a biobank for use in future research projects investigating infection and immune responses.
Researchers believe that the data from the study will reveal important information about the symptoms and progress of the COVID-19 infection in different people.
Professor Tim Spector said “These are worrying times for everyone. Our twins are fantastically committed, enthusiastic health research participants who have already been studied in unprecedented detail, putting us in a unique position to provide vital answers to support the global fight against COVID-19. The more of the public that also use the app, the better the real-time data we will have to combat the outbreak in this country.”
