New App Helps Predict COVID-19 Long Haulers

Friday, March 26th, 2021 -- 9:00 AM

(WMTV) The National Institute of Health is highlighting a new app the agency claims does a pretty good job determining if someone is likely to suffer long-term effects of COVID-19.

NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins explained a simple algorithm created by the app’s developers, the COVID Symptom Study, and using a limited number of variables, predicted approximately 70 percent of so-called “Long COVID.”

It also was similarly effective in avoiding false alarms.  The app worked by weighing several factors, including age, gender, and the number of early symptoms, such as fatigue, headache, shortness of breath, and loss of smell, to make its forecast.

Older people, women, and those experiencing five or more symptoms were more likely to develop long-term symptoms, the agency stated.  Fatigue and shortness of breath were listed as some of the long-term side effects as well, in addition to “brain fog,” sleep disorders, fevers, gastrointestinal symptoms, anxiety, and depression.

To determine its success rate, researchers sampled 4,182 of the apps users, who were confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 and who consistently logged their symptoms.

Another independent group study of nearly 2,500 people validated the results, according to the NIH. The latter study also indicated the five or more threshold for symptoms was the strongest indicator of a person’s likelihood of developing Long COVID.

The app was created by studying over four million users in the COVID Symptom Study, the findings of which was published in Nature Magazine.

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