Covid-19: Study reveals six clusters of symptoms that could be used as a clinical prediction tool
Jacqui Wise
Abstract
Covid-19: Study reveals six clusters of symptoms that could be used as a clinical prediction tool Jacqui WiseAn analysis of data obtained from a symptom tracker app has shown that there are six distinct "types" of covid-19, each distinguished by a cluster of symptoms.The researchers said that these types could be used to predict the need for respiratory support in severe covid-19.The study is available online as a preprint and has been submitted to a scientific journal for rapid peer review and publication. 1 The Covid Symptom Study app was developed by King's College London in conjunction with the health technology company ZOE and has more than 4 million users.Users of the app are asked to log their health and any new potential symptoms of covid-19 daily.A machine learning algorithm analysed data from a subset of 1653 users of the app in the UK and US with confirmed covid-19 who had regularly logged their symptoms in March and April.Of the sample, 383 reported at least one hospital visit and 107 reported respiratory support.The algorithm revealed six distinct groupings of symptoms.This was then tested by running it on a second independent dataset of 1000 users in the UK, US, and Sweden who had logged their symptoms in May.The six clusters are