CCS investigators and collaborators recently published an analysis of physical activity data from Eureka study participants like YOU who chose to share their smartphone accelerometer data. Using nearly 20 MILLION daily step counts from over 455,000 people, we discovered a 5.5% decrease in steps just 10 days after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, with a 27.3% decrease in steps after 30 days — suggesting people really were staying home more often!
We even discovered regional differences thanks to our Citizen Scientists’ generous data donation! For example, we found that after Italy declared a nationwide lockdown, they exhibited a 48.7% maximal decrease in steps, whereas Sweden, where lockdown orders weren’t issued (at least at the time of analysis) showed only a 6.9% maximal decrease in steps. Isn’t it interesting that even though there was no lockdown, Swedes were walking less anyway?!
Either way, this analysis (and more to come soon!) shows how we can learn important insights about behaviors and symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic — all thanks to Citizen Scientists like YOU!
Click here to read more about this study by Drs. Tison, Marcus, Pletcher, Olgin, and others.
