Assessment of Prolonged Physiological and Behavioral Changes Associated With COVID-19 Infection

Introduction

Long-term COVID symptoms marked by autonomic dysfunction¹ and cardiac damage² following COVID-19 infection have been noted for up to 6 months after symptom onset,³ but to date have not been quantified, to our knowledge. Previous studies have found that wearable data can improve real-time detection of viral illness⁴ or discrimination of individuals with COVID-19 vs other viral infections.⁵ Wearable devices provide a way to continuously track an individual’s physiological and behavioral metrics beginning when healthy (ie, before infection), during the course of infection, and recovery back to baseline. In this cohort study, we aimed to examine the duration and variation of recovery among COVID-19–positive vs COVID-19–negative participants.