Researchers at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill are working on using wearable devices and smartphone apps to track the flu among college students.
According to the scientists, of the 18 million undergraduates in the U.S., more than one in five will probably get the flu this year, and this new technique using mobile devices to capture lifestyle data can help identify the students most at risk.
As part of the test model conducted at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, researchers gathered personalized daily symptoms from each student participant for 10 weeks. When students reported coughing and fever, chills or aches, they were given throat swabs to determine whether they had a cold or the flu.
The test model then provided each student a prediction of how likely they would spread or contract the flu on a given day, as well as personal health habits that might help them stay or get healthy again, such as hand-washing or getting a flu shot.
Ultimately, the aim is physicians could use the personal symptom data to identify and alert at-risk students before they get sick or infect other students.
"We want to leverage that data to predict what people's individual risk factors are, and give them advice to help them reduce their chances of getting sick," said Katherine Heller, PhD, a statistician at Duke University who helped develop the model.
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