Background
In April 2020, Your.MD launched the COVID-19 Symptom Mapper in partnership with Imperial College London to better understand how the disease is affecting communities worldwide. The mapper asks users to select the symptoms they’ve experienced from a list known to be associated with the illness.
Data Set
As of 06 November 2020, 185229 people around the world (an increase of 1133 respondents compared with the week commencing 21 September 2020) have used the mapper to record their symptoms, with over 80% reporting at least one symptom. A final sample of 105614 respondents were analysed. This included people who self-diagnosed as having COVID-19 with at least one symptom, or those who self-diagnosed as not having COVID-19 but experienced fatigue, fever, cough and anosmia (loss of smell or taste).
Key Points
Our data showed that fatigue, headache and sore throat were the three most common symptoms (48.5%, 48.4% and 42.8% respectively). Among people who had tested positive for the virus, nearly half reported experiencing anosmia (47%).
Women reported chills, headache, muscle ache and loss of smell or taste more commonly than men.
The majority of people in our sample (83.8%) had mild symptoms. However, among those who had tested positive for COVID-19, nearly 1 in 3 experienced moderate symptoms.
The length of time people fell ill varied. 3 in 4 people in the sample had symptoms for a week or less, but around 1 in 19 people reported to have symptoms that lasted more than 3 weeks. Shortness of breath, mucusy cough (sputum) and dry cough were three most long-lasting symptoms.
Countries with the highest number of people with COVID-19 symptoms recorded in the Mapper were Mexico (24.8%), India (13.4%), Brazil (9.3%), Pakistan (8.3%), Bolivia (5.5%), the Philippines (5.0%), the UK (4.7%) and Peru (4.3%).
Results
These results are updated on a regular basis.
Severity
The table below shows the percentage of people that have mild, moderate or severe COVID-19. All data are self-reported
| Mild | Moderate | Severe |
| 83.8% | 15.0% | 1.1% |
Gender
The table below shows the gender split of participants across the top 10 countries.
| Country | Male | Female |
| Mexico | 36.4% | 63.6% |
| India | 63.2% | 36.8% |
| Brazil | 18.0% | 82.0% |
| Pakistan | 56.6% | 43.4% |
| Bolivia | 45.5% | 54.5% |
| Phillipines | 50.3% | 49.7% |
| United Kingdom | 21.9% | 78.1% |
| Peru | 43.1% | 56.9% |
| El Salvador | 31.3% | 68.7% |
| Venezuala | 36.5% | 63.5% |
Age
The table below shows the age distribution of participants.
| Under 40 | 40 - 59 | 60+ |
| 64.2% | 30.7% | 5.1% |
Duration of Illness
The table below shows the number of days people reported to be unwell.
| Duration | Percentage |
| None | 18.9% |
| 1-3 days | 31.0% |
| 4-7 days | 27.5% |
| 8-14 days | 13.3% |
| 15-21 days | 4.1% |
| 22+ days | 5.3% |
Symptoms
The table below shows the % of users who have reported any of the symptoms from the mapper compared to a study based on hospitalised patients in Wuhan, China .
| Symptom | % Mapper | % Study |
| Persistent cough | 41.2% | 68% |
| Temperature | 24.4% | 22% |
| Fatigue / Tiredness | 48.5% | 38% |
| Coughing up mucus (sputum) | 17.1% | 34% |
| Shortness of breath | 17.0% | 19% |
| Muscle aches | 37.9% | 15% |
| Sore throat | 42.9% | 14% |
| Headache | 48.3% | 14% |
| Chills | 18.8% | 12% |
| Blocked nose | 38.4% | 5% |
| Vomiting | 5.0% | 5% |
| Diarrhoea | 19.2% | 5% |
| Loss of smell and taste | 28.8% | N/A |
| Loss of appetite | 7.0% | N/A |
| Sneezing | 0.0% | N/A |
| Chest pain / tightness | 3.9% | N/A |
| Itchy eyes | 13.5% | N/A |
| Joint pain / aches | 4.8% | N/A |
Breakdown By Category
The section below shows a breakdown of the severity of self diagnosis by age and the percentage breakdown for each symptom by gender and country.
| COVID-19 Severity ⓘ | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Mild | Moderate | Severe | |
| Under 40 | 85.1% | 13.9% | 1.0% |
| 40-59 | 82.4% | 16.6% | 1.0% |
| 60+ | 78.4% | 19.7% | 1.9% |
| Symptom | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
| Cough ⓘ | 42.0% | 58.0% |
| Temperature ⓘ | 49.8% | 50.2% |
| Fatigue ⓘ | 38.5% | 61.5% |
| Coughing up mucus (sputum) ⓘ | 48.2% | 51.8% |
| Shortness of breath ⓘ | 43.7% | 56.3% |
| Muscle aches ⓘ | 37.2% | 62.8% |
| Sore throat ⓘ | 39.4% | 60.6% |
| Headache ⓘ | 33.4% | 66.6% |
| Chills ⓘ | 37.4% | 62.6% |
| Blocked nose ⓘ | 38.7% | 61.3% |
| Vomiting ⓘ | 36.0% | 64.0% |
| Diarrhoea ⓘ | 38.4% | 61.6% |
| Loss of smell and taste ⓘ | 35.0% | 65.0% |
| Loss of appetite | 31.0% | 69.0% |
| Sneezing | 0% | 0% |
| Chest pain ⓘ | 35.2% | 64.8% |
| Itchy eyes ⓘ | 28.2% | 71.8% |
| Joint pain ⓘ | 31.3% | 68.7% |
| Symptom | India | Mexico | Pakistan | Philippines | UK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cough ⓘ | 12.7% | 22.2% | 9.0% | 6.6% | 6.5% |
| Temperature ⓘ | 15.6% | 23.2% | 15.3% | 2.6% | 4.0% |
| Fatigue ⓘ | 11.6% | 25.8% | 10.2% | 4.8% | 7.3% |
| Coughing up mucus (sputum) ⓘ | 17.9% | 10.9% | 11.0% | 10.9% | 11.5% |
| Shortness of breath ⓘ | 12.8% | 17.5% | 7.5% | 11.4% | 12.2% |
| Muscle aches ⓘ | 9.7% | 24.6% | 7.0% | 5.9% | 7.6% |
| Sore throat ⓘ | 13.6% | 24.9% | 8.5% | 5.8% | 5.4% |
| Headache ⓘ | 8.4% | 26.3% | 6.7% | 4.0% | 5.7% |
| Chills ⓘ | 8.2% | 24.6% | 5.7% | 3.6% | 8.7% |
| Blocked nose ⓘ | 9.4% | 24.3% | 7.0% | 4.4% | 5.0% |
| Vomiting ⓘ | 11.5% | 21.1% | 9.5% | 7.8% | 8.7% |
| Diarrhoea ⓘ | 6.9% | 27.9% | 6.4% | 4.4% | 6.1% |
| Loss of smell and taste ⓘ | 8.4% | 29.2% | 8.3% | 2.1% | 4.8% |
| Loss of appetite | 9.5% | 25.9% | 11.6% | 0.1% | 0.5% |
| Sneezing | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Chest pain ⓘ | 15.6% | 12.9% | 17.9% | 0.4% | 0.8% |
| Itchy eyes ⓘ | 5.1% | 30.4% | 6.1% | 0.1% | 0.4% |
| Joint pain ⓘ | 13.9% | 9.6% | 23.9% | 0.4% | 1.2% |
How to participate in the study
You can help us map the pandemic by clicking on the following link and filling in the survey.
We can share the anonymised data from this research contact partners@your.md.
CogX 2020 Awards - People's Choice COVID-19 Innovation-Society
Healthily were awarded the 2020 People's Choice COVID-19 Innovation-Society award for the work we have done on the COVID-19 Symptom Mapper.
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