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Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research

Date Submitted: Nov 27, 2020
Date Accepted: Jan 29, 2021
Date Submitted to PubMed: Feb 2, 2021

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Use of Physiological Data From a Wearable Device to Identify SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Symptoms and Predict COVID-19 Diagnosis: Observational Study

Hirten RP, Danieletto M, Tomalin L, Choi KH, Zweig M, Golden E, Kaur S, Helmus D, Biello A, Pyzik R, Charney A, Miotto R, Glicksberg BS, Levin M, Nabeel I, Aberg J, Reich D, Charney D, Bottinger EP, Keefer L, Suarez-Farinas M, Nadkarni GN, Fayad ZA

Use of Physiological Data From a Wearable Device to Identify SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Symptoms and Predict COVID-19 Diagnosis: Observational Study

J Med Internet Res 2021;23(2):e26107

DOI: 10.2196/26107

PMID: 33529156

PMCID: 7901594

Physiological Data from a Wearable Device Identifies SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Symptoms and Predicts COVID-19 Diagnosis: Observational Study

  • Robert P Hirten; 
  • Matteo Danieletto; 
  • Lewis Tomalin; 
  • Katie Hyewon Choi; 
  • Micol Zweig; 
  • Eddye Golden; 
  • Sparshdeep Kaur; 
  • Drew Helmus; 
  • Anthony Biello; 
  • Renata Pyzik; 
  • Alexander Charney; 
  • Riccardo Miotto; 
  • Benjamin S Glicksberg; 
  • Matthew Levin; 
  • Ismail Nabeel; 
  • Judith Aberg; 
  • David Reich; 
  • Dennis Charney; 
  • Erwin P Bottinger; 
  • Laurie Keefer; 
  • Mayte Suarez-Farinas; 
  • Girish N Nadkarni; 
  • Zahi A Fayad

ABSTRACT

Background:

Changes in autonomic nervous system function, characterized by heart rate variability (HRV), have been associated with and observed prior to the clinical identification of infection.

Objective:

We performed an evaluation of HRV collected by a wearable device to identify and predict Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and its related symptoms.

Methods:

Health care workers in the Mount Sinai Health System were prospectively followed in an ongoing observational study using the custom Warrior Watch Study App which was downloaded to their smartphones. Participants wore an Apple Watch for the duration of the study measuring HRV throughout the follow up period. Survey’s assessing infection and symptom related questions were obtained daily.

Results:

Using a mixed-effect COSINOR model the mean amplitude of the circadian pattern of the standard deviation of the interbeat interval of normal sinus beats (SDNN), a HRV metric, differed between subjects with and without COVID-19 (P=0.006). The mean amplitude of this circadian pattern differed between individuals during the 7 days before and the 7 days after a COVID-19 diagnosis compared to this metric during uninfected time periods (P =0.01). Significant changes in the mean MESOR and amplitude of the circadian pattern of the SDNN was observed between the first day of reporting a COVID-19 related symptom compared to all other symptom free days (P =0.01).

Conclusions:

Longitudinally collected HRV metrics from a commonly worn commercial wearable device (Apple Watch) can identify the diagnosis of COVID-19 and COVID-19 related symptoms. Prior to the diagnosis of COVID-19 by nasal PCR, significant changes in HRV were observed demonstrating its predictive ability to identify COVID-19 infection.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Hirten RP, Danieletto M, Tomalin L, Choi KH, Zweig M, Golden E, Kaur S, Helmus D, Biello A, Pyzik R, Charney A, Miotto R, Glicksberg BS, Levin M, Nabeel I, Aberg J, Reich D, Charney D, Bottinger EP, Keefer L, Suarez-Farinas M, Nadkarni GN, Fayad ZA

Use of Physiological Data From a Wearable Device to Identify SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Symptoms and Predict COVID-19 Diagnosis: Observational Study

J Med Internet Res 2021;23(2):e26107

DOI: 10.2196/26107

PMID: 33529156

PMCID: 7901594

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