Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Sep 30, 2021
Date Accepted: Jan 22, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jan 25, 2022
Longitudinal changes of COVID-19 symptoms in social media: Observational study
ABSTRACT
Background:
In December 2019, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak started in China and rapidly spread around the world. Many studies have been conducted to understand clinical characteristics of COVID-19, and recently post-infection 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.
Objective:
This study aims to investigate and analyze public social media data to understand the longitudinal impact of COVID-19 symptoms before and after the recovery of COVID-19.
Methods:
Through semantic analysis, we collected 84,140 Reddit posts from 1,036 COVID-19 positive users. In total, 292 active users, who frequently reported disease progress on Reddit, along with their 2,213 longitudinal Reddit posts were identified. Machine-learning tools to extract biomedical information were applied to identify COVID-19 symptoms mentioned in social media. We then examined longitudinal changes of individual physiological and psychological characteristics before and after the recovery from COVID-19 infection.
Results:
In total, 58 physiological and 3 psychological symptoms were identified in social media before and after the recovery from COVID-19 infection. From longitudinal analyses of social media, symptoms of COVID-19 patients lasted 2.5 months. On average, symptoms appeared around a month before the recovery and remained for 1.5 months after the recovery. Well-known COVID-19 symptoms (e.g., fever, cough, and chest congestion) appeared relatively earlier in patient journeys and were frequently observed before the recovery of COVID-19. Meanwhile, mental discomfort or distress (e.g., brain fog or stress), fatigue, and manifestations on toes or fingers were frequently mentioned after the recovery and remained as intermediate and longer-term sequelae.
Conclusions:
Symptom presentation and duration during COVID-19 patients’ journeys may serve as surrogate indicators to predict their clinical outcomes and provide appropriate treatment. Clinical Trial: NA
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