Abstract
Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate the spatial and temporal relationships between the prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms in the community-level and area-level social deprivation.
Design: Spatial mapping, generalised linear models, using time as a factor and spatial-lag models were used to explore the relationship between self-reported COVID-19 symptom prevalence as recorded through two smartphone symptom tracker apps and a range of socioeconomic factors using a repeated cross-sectional study design.
Setting: In the community in Northern Ireland, UK. The analysis period included the earliest stages of non-pharmaceutical interventions and societal restrictions or ‘lockdown’ in 2020.
Participants: Users of two smartphone symptom tracker apps recording self-reported health information who recorded their location as Northern Ireland, UK.
Primary outcome measures: Population standardised self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and correlation between population standardised self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and area-level characteristics from measures of multiple deprivation including employment levels and population housing density, derived as the mean number of residents per household for each census super output area.
Results: Higher self-reported prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms was associated with the most deprived areas (p
Design: Spatial mapping, generalised linear models, using time as a factor and spatial-lag models were used to explore the relationship between self-reported COVID-19 symptom prevalence as recorded through two smartphone symptom tracker apps and a range of socioeconomic factors using a repeated cross-sectional study design.
Setting: In the community in Northern Ireland, UK. The analysis period included the earliest stages of non-pharmaceutical interventions and societal restrictions or ‘lockdown’ in 2020.
Participants: Users of two smartphone symptom tracker apps recording self-reported health information who recorded their location as Northern Ireland, UK.
Primary outcome measures: Population standardised self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and correlation between population standardised self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and area-level characteristics from measures of multiple deprivation including employment levels and population housing density, derived as the mean number of residents per household for each census super output area.
Results: Higher self-reported prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms was associated with the most deprived areas (p
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e048333 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | BMJ Open |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 22 Jun 2021 |
Keywords
- COVID-19 self-reported symptoms
- social deprivation
- population housing density
- societal restrictions or ‘lockdown'
- (spatial) regression
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Information Systems
- Statistics and Probability
- Health Informatics
- Health Policy
Access to Document
- BJM Open McKinley et al_ submitted
© 2021 The Author(s).
- Association between community-based self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and social deprivation explored using symptom tracker apps: a repeated cross-sectional study in Northern Ireland
Copyright 2021 the authors. This is an open access Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction for non-commercial purposes, provided the author and source are cited.