Abstract

Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate the spatial and temporal relationships between the prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms in the community-level and area-level social deprivation. Design: Spatial mapping, generalised linear models, using time as a factor and spatial-lag models were used to explore the relationship between self-reported COVID-19 symptom prevalence as recorded through two smartphone symptom tracker apps and a range of socioeconomic factors using a repeated cross-sectional study design. Setting: In the community in Northern Ireland, UK. The analysis period included the earliest stages of non-pharmaceutical interventions and societal restrictions or 'lockdown' in 2020. Participants: Users of two smartphone symptom tracker apps recording self-reported health information who recorded their location as Northern Ireland, UK. Primary outcome measures: Population standardised self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and correlation between population standardised self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and area-level characteristics from measures of multiple deprivation including employment levels and population housing density, derived as the mean number of residents per household for each census super output area. Results: Higher self-reported prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms was associated with the most deprived areas (p < 0.001) and with those areas with the lowest employment levels (p < 0.001). Higher rates of self-reported COVID-19 symptoms within the age groups, 18-24 and 25-34 years were found within the most deprived areas during the earliest stages of non-pharmaceutical interventions and societal restrictions ('lockdown'). Conclusions: Through spatial regression of self-reporting COVID-19 smartphone data in the community, this research shows how a lens of social deprivation can deepen our understanding of COVID-19 transmission and prevention. Our findings indicate that social inequality, as measured by area-level deprivation, is associated with disparities in potential COVID-19 infection, with higher prevalence of self-reported COVID-19 symptoms in urban areas associated with area-level social deprivation, housing density and age.

RAS ID

36057

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

2021

Volume

11

Issue

6

PubMed ID

34158305

School

School of Science

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Publisher

BMJ Publishing Group

Identifier

Ute Mueller

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8670-2120

Comments

McKinley, J. M., Cutting, D., Anderson, N., Graham, C., Johnston, B., Mueller, U., ... Kee, F. (2021). Association between community-based self-reported COVID-19 symptoms and social deprivation explored using symptom tracker apps: A repeated cross-sectional study in Northern Ireland. BMJ Open, 11(6), article e048333. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048333

Download

Share

 
COinS
 

Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1136/bmjopen-2020-048333