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Medicine

Fitbits Detect Lasting Changes After Covid-19 (nytimes.com) 158

Posted by BeauHD from the before-and-after dept.
An anonymous reader writes: One in five Americans uses a Fitbit, Apple Watch or other wearable fitness tracker. And over the past year, several studies have suggested that the devices -- which can continually collect data on heart rates, body temperature, physical activity and more -- could help detect early signs of Covid-19 symptoms. Now, research suggests that these wearables can also help track patients' recovery from the disease, providing insight into its long-term effects. In a paper published on Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network Open, researchers studying Fitbit data reported that people who tested positive for Covid-19 displayed behavioral and physiological changes, including an elevated heart rate, that could last for weeks or months. These symptoms lasted longer in people with Covid than in those with other respiratory illnesses, the scientists found.

The new study focuses on a subset of 875 Fitbit-wearing participants who reported a fever, cough, body aches or other symptoms of a respiratory illness and were tested for Covid-19. Of those, 234 people tested positive for the disease. The rest were presumed to have other kinds of infections. Participants in both groups slept more and walked less after they got sick, and their resting heart rates rose. But these changes were more pronounced in people with Covid-19. "There was a much larger change in resting heart rate for individuals who had Covid compared to other viral infections," said Jennifer Radin, an epidemiologist at Scripps who leads the DETECT trial. "We also have a much more drastic change in steps and sleep." The scientists also found that about nine days after participants with Covid first began reporting symptoms, their heart rates dropped. After this dip, which was not observed in those with other illnesses, their heart rates rose again and remained elevated for months. It took 79 days, on average, for their resting heart rates to return to normal, compared with just four days for those in the non-Covid group.

This prolonged heart rate elevation may be a sign that Covid-19 disrupts the autonomic nervous system, which regulates basic physiological processes. The heart palpitations and dizziness reported by many people who are recovering from Covid may be symptoms of this disruption. Sleep and physical activity levels also returned to baseline more slowly in those with Covid-19 compared to those with other ailments, Dr. Radin and her colleagues found. The researchers identified a small subset of people with Covid whose heart rates remained more than five beats per minute above normal one to two months after infection. Nearly 14 percent of those with the disease fell into this category, and their heart rates did not return to normal for more than 133 days, on average. These participants were also significantly more likely to report having had a cough, shortness of breath and body aches during the acute phase of their illness than did other Covid patients.
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Fitbits Detect Lasting Changes After Covid-19 More

Fitbits Detect Lasting Changes After Covid-19

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  • My Apple Watch Resting HR Data (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 08, 2021 @08:22AM (#61562119)

    I got covid in late November. Here are my average resting HRs (sleeping) for the months before and after covid

    Sept 56
    Oct 56
    Nov 63 (Covid at end of month, 2 days in hospital)
    Dec 69 (Covid at start of month, 10 days in hospital)
    Jan 66
    Feb 61
    Mar 62
    Apr 58
    May 58
    Jun 53
     

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Rei ( 128717 )

      I mean, should anyone be shocked that a disease that targets ACE2 has a significant impact on the heart and circulatory system?

      • We're still at the point where "please cover your face so you don't spew the pandemic, respiratory virus everywhere" is a controversial suggestion, so who knows what the general consensus is on the function of ACE2.

    • All fine and good, but you are one data-point.
      Being that you were hospitalized for 12 days presumably during the worse of it, you were probably also put on Oxygen which probably helped fend off some of the damage.
      Also you have a lower than average heart-rate than average. Which you may be more physically fit. So you were able to tolerate the stress better than others may.

      This is also your sleeping rate, however if you active heart rate is statistically higher now it could effect results.

  • People have also been cooped up in their houses unable to get a previously normal amount of activity. That too leads to a rise in heart rate. Then again, so does gettin' busy. Maybe Fitbit needs to look at accelerometer data too.

  • Nice info! Now time to test the same, but after the vaccination instead. Curious to what degree (if any), we see lasting changes then.

  • This is all anecdotic, so take it with a grain of salt.

    I had a mild version, had a fever for two weeks, felt like shit, but no pneumonia.

    I work out a lot, typically 5 to 9 times a week (sometimes twice a day), I've been doing it for many years. The reason I'm telling you this, to establish that I have a reasonable knowledge of how my body reacts under aerobic load.

    After I recovered, when I started working out again, it took about a month to a month an a half for my body to start feeling right. We chat

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