Hospital Epidemics Tracker (HEpiTracker): Description and pilot study of a mobile app to track COVID-19 in hospital workers.
JMIR Public Health Surveill
; 6(3): e21653, 2020 09 21.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-789092
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Hospital workers have been the most frequently and severely affected professional group during the COVID-19 pandemic, and have a big impact on transmission. In this context, innovative tools are required to measure the symptoms compatible with COVID-19, the spread of infection, and testing capabilities within hospitals in real time.OBJECTIVE:
We aimed to develop and test an effective and user-friendly tool to identify and track symptoms compatible with COVID-19 in hospital workers.METHODS:
We developed and pilot tested Hospital Epidemics Tracker (HEpiTracker), a newly designed app to track the spread of COVID-19 among hospital workers. Hospital staff in 9 hospital centers across 5 Spanish regions (Andalusia, Balearics, Catalonia, Galicia, and Madrid) were invited to download the app on their phones and to register their daily body temperature, COVID-19-compatible symptoms, and general health score, as well as any polymerase chain reaction and serological test results.RESULTS:
A total of 477 hospital staff participated in the study between April 8 and June 2, 2020. Of note, both health-related (n=329) and non-health-related (n=148) professionals participated in the study; over two-thirds of participants (68.8%) were health workers (43.4% physicians and 25.4% nurses), while the proportion of non-health-related workers by center ranged from 40% to 85%. Most participants were female (n=323, 67.5%), with a mean age of 45.4 years (SD 10.6). Regarding smoking habits, 13.0% and 34.2% of participants were current or former smokers, respectively. The daily reporting of symptoms was highly variable across participating hospitals; although we observed a decline in adherence after an initial participation peak in some hospitals, other sites were characterized by low participation rates throughout the study period.CONCLUSIONS:
HEpiTracker is an already available tool to monitor COVID-19 and other infectious diseases in hospital workers. This tool has already been tested in real conditions. HEpiTracker is available in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. It has the potential to become a customized asset to be used in future COVID-19 pandemic waves and other environments. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04326400; https//clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04326400.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Personnel, Hospital
/
Pneumonia, Viral
/
Mass Screening
/
Population Surveillance
/
Coronavirus Infections
/
Epidemics
/
Mobile Applications
/
Hospitals
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
JMIR Public Health Surveill
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
21653
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS