26,700 health app users have provided over 50,000 responses to questions about coronavirus behaviour and the national response to Government guidelines.
Those most likely to stay at home were Ryedale, N. Yorkshire, at 98.2%, Wandsworth and Adur each on 97.5%, Richmond upon Thames and Powys each on 97.1% and Preston and Wirral each on 97%.
The data, based on 26,700 responses from Evergreen Life health app users, shows that up until April 2, 2020, the highest number of respondents saying they were not staying at home were: 25% in Middlesbrough, 18.2% in North Hertfordshire 17.9% in Enfield, 17.7% in Burnley, and 17.6% in Richmondshire.
In Middlesbrough, 9.1% of respondents said there were symptoms of Covid-19 in the household, with North Hertfordshire at 21.1%, Enfield at 16.7% Burnley at 10% and Richmondshire at 5.3%.
The data is being shared with leading universities and to help the NHS.
Data scientists from institutions including the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester are working with Evergreen Life to analyse the results gained from users of its NHS-assured app to help feed this into the national planning and coordination efforts. Researchers at the University of Liverpool’s Liverpool Malawi COVID19 taskforce (#Liverpool_Malawi_COVID19) are working within national public health measures.
Dr Ian Hall of the University of Manchester said: “Evergreen Life users are supporting a better understanding of the local experience of COVID-19 disease through sharing their data which will be incredibly useful to national and local planning. This is an exciting emerging data stream and I look forward to helping interpret the data, with colleagues in Manchester and Liverpool, as it provides situational awareness to users and policy makers alike.”
Evergreen Life CEO Stephen Critchlow says: “We’ve asked our 750,000 users to help build a heat map of those with symptoms of COVID-19 to help the NHS and researchers better understand how the virus is moving and spreading around the UK. "
Users of the app, available from app stores, are being asked to report if they are self-isolating, have a dry cough or a temperature. The anonymised data is being used to create a national picture of those reporting symptoms. People will also be asked to report when they recover to enable further data analysis as the outbreak progresses. App users are also sent personalised information on national guidance, to support them, and optimise their wellbeing. The platform will also be offered to give the special advice from the NHS for users within the 1.5m people with the greatest risk of complications.
Evergreen Life has been working with the NHS since 2015 delivering and supporting an NHS-assured patient-facing app. This makes it uniquely placed to create the heat map because users can access their NHS records as well as record their own health and wellbeing data, all in a single place.
Evergreen Life launched in 2017 and is linked to 99% of GPs in England. Over 500,000 of the app’s users in England already use Evergreen Life to connect to their GP for appointments and prescriptions, and many of these request, and have access to, their medical records, which they can view on their smartphone and share with whoever they want.