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. 2017 Jul;107(7):1130-1136.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2017.303767. Epub 2017 May 18.

Use of a Digital Health Application for Influenza Surveillance in China

Yulin Hswen  1 , John S Brownstein  1 , Jeremiah Liu  1 , Jared B Hawkins  1
Affiliations

Use of a Digital Health Application for Influenza Surveillance in China

Yulin Hswen et al. Am J Public Health. 2017 Jul.

Abstract

Objectives: To examine whether a commercial digital health application could support influenza surveillance in China.

Methods: We retrieved data from the Thermia online and mobile educational tool, which allows parents to monitor their children's fever and infectious febrile illnesses including influenza. We modeled monthly aggregated influenza-like illness case counts from Thermia users over time and compared them against influenza monthly case counts obtained from the National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People's Republic of China by using time series regression analysis. We retrieved 44 999 observations from January 2014 through July 2016 from Thermia China.

Results: Thermia appeared to predict influenza outbreaks 1 month earlier than the National Health and Family Planning Commission influenza surveillance system (P = .046). Being younger, not having up-to-date immunizations, and having an underlying health condition were associated with participant-reported influenza-like illness.

Conclusions: Digital health applications could supplement traditional influenza surveillance systems in China by providing access to consumers' symptom reporting. Growing popularity and use of commercial digital health applications in China potentially affords opportunities to support disease detection and monitoring and rapid treatment mobilization.

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Figures

FIGURE 1—
FIGURE 1—
Monthly Estimates of Influenza Cases From Thermia and the National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China: January 2014–July 2016 Note. ILI = influenza-like illness symptoms; NHFPC = National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People’s Republic of China. Thermia ILI case counts were calculated by subtracting locally weighted scatterplot smoothing plot trend from the raw Thermia ILI count. Case counts are per 10 000.
FIGURE 2—
FIGURE 2—
Monthly Estimates of Influenza Cases Among Thermia Participants Aged 5 Years or Younger Compared With Those Older Than 5 Years: China, January 2014–July 2016 Note. ILI = influenza-like illness symptoms. Thermia ILI case counts were calculated by subtracting locally weighted scatterplot smoothing plot trend from the raw Thermia ILI counts.
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