Just as humans react differently to situations, there are factors that affects bodily reactions to stimulus.
In order words, the exact symptoms of early COVID-19 infection you suffer may depend on both your age and gender, a new study finds.
As reported by First News, the study has been able to identify that the profile of symptoms due to COVID-19 differs fom one group to another.
This suggests that the criteria to encourage people to get tested should be personalized using individuals’ information such as age.
Alternatively, a larger set of symptoms could be considered, so the different manifestations of the disease across different groups are taken into account,” study co-author Marc Modat, a senior lecturer at King’s College London, said in a college news release.Using data collected in the United Kingdom between April 20 and Oct. 15, 2020, and a machine learning model, the researchers assessed 18 symptoms to identify early infection and were able to detect 80% of cases when using three days of self-reported symptoms.
Overall, the most important symptoms were loss of smell, chest pain, persistent cough, abdominal pain, blisters on the feet, eye soreness and unusual muscle pain.
However, loss of smell was less significant in people older than 60 and was not relevant for those over 80. Other early symptoms, such as diarrhea, were key in people older than 60, while fever was not an early symptom of the disease in any age group.Gender also mattered, the investigators found.
Men were more likely to report shortness of breath, fatigue, chills and shivers, while women were more likely to report loss of smell, chest pain and a persistent cough.
Nevertheless, there is room for further research because we are sure of getting different results. Until then, stay safe.
