Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Oct 22;22(10):e23297.
doi: 10.2196/23297.

COVID-19 Self-Reported Symptom Tracking Programs in the United States: Framework Synthesis

Tracey Pérez Koehlmoos  1 , Miranda Lynn Janvrin  1   2 , Jessica Korona-Bailey  1   2 , Cathaleen Madsen  1   2 , Rodney Sturdivant  1   2
Affiliations

COVID-19 Self-Reported Symptom Tracking Programs in the United States: Framework Synthesis

Tracey Pérez Koehlmoos et al. J Med Internet Res. .

Abstract

Background: With the continued spread of COVID-19 in the United States, identifying potential outbreaks before infected individuals cross the clinical threshold is key to allowing public health officials time to ensure local health care institutions are adequately prepared. In response to this need, researchers have developed participatory surveillance technologies that allow individuals to report emerging symptoms daily so that their data can be extrapolated and disseminated to local health care authorities.

Objective: This study uses a framework synthesis to evaluate existing self-reported symptom tracking programs in the United States for COVID-19 as an early-warning tool for probable clusters of infection. This in turn will inform decision makers and health care planners about these technologies and the usefulness of their information to aid in federal, state, and local efforts to mobilize effective current and future pandemic responses.

Methods: Programs were identified through keyword searches and snowball sampling, then screened for inclusion. A best fit framework was constructed for all programs that met the inclusion criteria by collating information collected from each into a table for easy comparison.

Results: We screened 8 programs; 6 were included in our final framework synthesis. We identified multiple common data elements, including demographic information like race, age, gender, and affiliation (all were associated with universities, medical schools, or schools of public health). Dissimilarities included collection of data regarding smoking status, mental well-being, and suspected exposure to COVID-19.

Conclusions: Several programs currently exist that track COVID-19 symptoms from participants on a semiregular basis. Coordination between symptom tracking program research teams and local and state authorities is currently lacking, presenting an opportunity for collaboration to avoid duplication of efforts and more comprehensive knowledge dissemination.

Keywords: COVID-19; coronavirus; framework analysis; information resources; monitoring; patient-reported outcome measures; self-reported; surveillance; symptom tracking; synthesis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

References

    1. Hui Ds, I Azhar E, Madani Ta, Ntoumi F, Kock R, Dar O, Ippolito G, Mchugh Td, Memish Za, Drosten C, Zumla A, Petersen E. The continuing 2019-nCoV epidemic threat of novel coronaviruses to global health - The latest 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China. Int J Infect Dis. 2020 Feb;91:264–266. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2020.01.009. https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1201-9712(20)30011-4 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. COVID19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Johns Hopkins Corona Virus Resource Center. [2020-08-06]. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html.
    1. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [2020-08-06]. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html.
    1. Cohen J, Kupferschmidt K. Countries test tactics in 'war' against COVID-19. Science. 2020 Mar 20;367(6484):1287–1288. doi: 10.1126/science.367.6484.1287. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nicola M, O'Neill N, Sohrabi C, Khan M, Agha M, Agha R. Evidence based management guideline for the COVID-19 pandemic - Review article. Int J Surg. 2020 May;77:206–216. doi: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.04.001. http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/32289472 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types