Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: Mar 5, 2020
Date Accepted: Apr 21, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Apr 22, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Surveillance of coronavirus disease 2019 in general population using an online questionnaire: A report from 18161 responders in China
ABSTRACT
Background:
The recent outbreak of 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has put the conventional ways of disease surveillance under pressure. So far little is known about the feasibility and reliability of an internet approach for COVID-19 surveillance.
Objective:
We aim to investigate the feasibility and reliability of surveillance of COVID-19 in the general population using an online questionnaire.
Methods:
A 10-item online questionnaire was developed according to medical guidelines and relevant publications. It was distributed between 24 January and 17 February 2020. Numbers of officially confirmed cases were collected and correlated with various statistics derived from the questionnaire.
Results:
A total of 18161 questionnaires were returned, including 6% (1171) from Wuhan City. Geographical distributions of the responders were consistent with prevalence per province (R² = 0.64, P < .001). History of contact significantly decreased with time, both outside Wuhan City (R² = 0.35, P = .002) and outside the Hubei Province (R² = 0.42, P < .001). Percentage of fever responders peaked around 08 February (R² = 0.57, P < .001) and increased with history of contact in the areas outside Wuhan City (odds ratio: 1.25, 95% confidence interval: 1.06 - 1.48, P = .009). Male, advanced age, history of contact with wildlife animals, and comorbidities including lung diseases, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, stroke and chronic kidney disease, increased the risk of fever in the general population with a history of contact.
Conclusions:
An online questionnaire may be used for surveillance of the COVID-19 outbreak in the general population, providing the current prevalence and trends of the disease and aiding in identifying the high-risk population.
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