Filenews 7 August 2021
A differentiation in the initial symptoms of coronavirus appears to be observed in patients according to their gender and age according to the results of a new study. In particular, new research data confirm that the initial symptomatology of coronavirus differs from patient to patient, with gender and age being some of the determining factors.
In fact, this differentiation is particularly important among younger ages (16-59 years) compared to older patients, from 60 to 80 years of age, while men show different symptoms than women in the early stages of the disease. The study was published in Lancet Digital Health.
The researchers from King's College London analysed data from the ZOE COVID Symptom Study application for the period April 2020 and 15 October 2020. Users of the app were asked to be examined as soon as they reported some new symptoms. The researchers then modelled a model with the first symptoms of COVID-19 infection, successfully identifying 80% of cases when using the symptoms reported by users in the first three days of the disease.
The researchers then compared the ability to predict the first symptoms of coronavirus infection using the UK National Health Service's diagnostic criteria and a machine learning model, which incorporated certain characteristics of the person who was ill such as age, gender and health status. This is the model that highlighted the differentiation of the symptoms of initial COVID-19 infection between different patient groups.
More specifically, 18 symptoms were examined, which differed based on age and gender. Some of the most important early symptoms of coronavirus presented to patients were loss of smell, chest pain, persistent cough, abdominal pain, blisters on the legs, tingling in the eyes and unusual muscle aching. However, the loss of smell was not noticeable in users over 60 years of age, and was not presented as a symptom in patients over 80 years of age.
In contrast, diarrhoea was observed as a key symptom in elderly patients aged 60-80 years, which was not seen equally at younger ages. Remarkable is the fact that the symptom of fever did not belong to the first symptoms of coronavirus in any age group.
In terms of differentiating symptoms between the sexes, men were more likely to report symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue, chills and fever, while women were more likely to report loss of smell, chest pain and persistent coughing.
Although the computer models related to the data from the users of the application, they were also checked in incidents outside the users of the application. It is worth noting that the data related to the first strain of the virus and the Alpha variant, however the main findings suggest that the symptoms of the Delta mutation and subsequent mutations will differ equally in different groups of the population.
"It is important that people know that the first symptoms are large-scale and may differ even among members of a family," says lead author Claire Steves, stressing that this recognition will help early diagnosis, especially in view of new mutations that are demonstrably more contagious.
