A new study published on Wednesday, July 7, on JAMA Network Open found that people who have had COVID-19 took longer to return to their baseline statistics and markers of health compared to those with other diseases.

The study focused on “875 individuals who reported symptoms of an acute respiratory illness and underwent swab testing for COVID-19 and were found to be either positive (234 individuals) or negative (641 individuals).”

The study is part of Scripps Research Translational Institute in California’s DETECT (Digital Engagement and Tracking for Early Control and Treatment) program, which looked into whether wearables, in conjunction with self-reporting of symptoms, can be accurate at identifying COVID-19.

There were a few key measurements that differ between those who had been COVID-19 positive and those who had been negative.

Those with COVID-19 tended to feel a short drop in resting heart rate relative to their baseline after the start of symptoms showing, then had a sustained, elevated heart rate. They also did less physical activity – fewer steps as measured by step counting – and slept less compared to the time prior to the COVID-19 diagnosis.

For COVID-19 positive individuals, it took about 79 days after symptom onset for resting heart rate to return to baseline while step count and sleep quantity took 32 and 24 days, respectively.

The amount of time it took for measurements to return to baseline were unique to COVID-19 as well. Jennifer Radin, an epidemiologist at Scripps leading the DETECT trial, told The New York Times in its report, “There was a much larger change in resting heart rate for individuals who had [COVID-19] compared to other viral infections.”

“We also have a much more drastic change in steps and sleep,” she added.

“Lots of people who get COVID end up getting autonomic dysfunction and a kind of ongoing inflammation, and this may adversely affect their body’s ability to regulate their pulse,” Dr. Radin said.

The study meanwhile cited one limitation, which was that participants did not continue reporting their symptoms timeframe after falling ill.

Said the study, “Symptom data were collected only during the acute phase of infection, which limited our ability to compare long-term physiological and behavioral changes with long-term symptoms.”

A future study hopes to address these concerns by having a larger sample size and longer study phase.

“We want to kind of do a better job of collecting long-term symptoms so we can compare the physiological changes that we’re seeing with symptoms that participants are actually experiencing,” Radin said “So this is really a preliminary study that opens up many other studies down the road.”

A copy of the study is available here. – Rappler.com