Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35076400›Full record

Observational studyJournal of medical Internet research2022

Longitudinal Changes of COVID-19 Symptoms in Social Media: Observational Study.

Sarah Sarabadani, Gaurav Baruah, Yan Fossat, Jouhyun Jeon

Open access · goldAbstract readObservational Study
In one paragraph

Observational study in Journal of medical Internet research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
6.3field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Sarah SarabadaniApplied Sciences, Klick Inc, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0003-3734-8089
Gaurav BaruahApplied Sciences, Klick Inc, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-4992-0524
Yan FossatApplied Sciences, Klick Inc, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0002-1271-2633
Jouhyun JeonApplied Sciences, Klick Inc, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID 0000-0003-2236-2849

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundIn December 2019, the COVID-19 outbreak started in China and rapidly spread around the world. Many studies have been conducted to understand the clinical characteristics of COVID-19, and recently postinfection sequelae of this disease have begun to be investigated. However, there is little consensus on the longitudinal changes of lasting physical or psychological symptoms from prior COVID-19 infection.

objectiveThis study aims to investigate and analyze public social media data from Reddit to understand the longitudinal impact of COVID-19 symptoms before and after recovery from COVID-19.

methodsWe collected 22,890 Reddit posts that were generated by 14,401 authors from March 14 to December 16, 2020. Using active learning and intensive manual inspection, 292 (2.03%) active authors, who were infected by COVID-19 and frequently reported disease progress on Reddit, along with their 2213 (9.67%) longitudinal posts, were identified. Machine learning tools to extract biomedical information were applied to identify COVID-19 symptoms mentioned in the Reddit posts. We then examined longitudinal changes in individual physiological and psychological characteristics before and after recovery from COVID-19 infection.

resultsIn total, 58 physiological and 3 psychological symptoms were identified in social media before and after recovery from COVID-19 infection. From the analyses, we found that symptoms of patients with COVID-19 lasted 2.5 months. On average, symptoms appeared around a month before recovery and remained for 1.5 months after recovery. Well-known COVID-19 symptoms, such as fever, cough, and chest congestion, appeared relatively earlier in patient journeys and were frequently observed before recovery from COVID-19. Meanwhile, mental discomfort or distress, such as brain fog or stress, fatigue, and manifestations on toes or fingers, were frequently mentioned after recovery and remained as intermediate- and longer-term sequelae.

conclusionsIn this study, we showed the dynamic changes in COVID-19 symptoms during the infection and recovery phases of the disease. Our findings suggest the feasibility of using social media data for investigating disease states and understanding the evolution of the physiological and psychological characteristics of COVID-19 infection over time.

Indexed as

COVID-19Social MediaDisease OutbreaksHumansMachine LearningSARS-CoV-2COVID-19diagnosislongitudinalmachine learningobservationalRedditsocial mediasymptomtreatment

Identifiers

PMID35076400
PMCPMC8852652
OpenAlexW4207023170

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.