Healthbit has partnered with LSE – London School of Economics and Political Science, to launch a global initiative which aims to assess the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the lives of people, including students and staff. Academic organisations from all over the world have joined this initiative with more getting in contact each day. This will help maximise the project’s international reach and will lead the analysis in local settings.
The LockedDown survey will capture how measures to combat the pandemic are affecting wellbeing – socially, mentally and physically as well as educational, professional and financial lives. This will include the effect of the different types of actions which have been implemented internationally and their impact in different cultural, social and economic circumstances.
To coincide with this research, Healthbit has brought forward the launch of the new Healthbit App, making available a number of COVID-19 trackers alongside a suite of health and lifestyle tracking tools.
Healthbit is hoping to build a longitudinal data set that helps researchers understand the daily impact of the pandemic across populations as well as how the disease effects people with a range of pre-existing medical conditions.
Healthbit allows people to easily track COVID-19 symptoms as well as keep a record of important health information such as existing medical conditions. In an emergency, medical information can be safely shared with doctors so they can quickly understand a person’s situation and make the best treatment decisions for them or their loved ones. For parents and carers who need to manage information for others, this can be done easily from the same app.
The LockedDown survey takes just five minutes to complete and is available at https://www.healthbit.com/the-lockeddown.
Dr Leeza Osipenko
LSE’s Department of Health Policy
“While governments are focusing on preventing premature deaths from the virus, it is important not to miss the opportunity to assess the wider impacts of the lockdown.”
“Our project will contribute to the many other initiatives attempting to capture this information, as well as catalyzing data collection in other countries.”
“Our aim is to generate information that will be useful to both universities and policymakers. Whether it is to prepare for a second wave, or to plan an exit strategy from the current situation, we must learn from the present.”
“Whether we are in lockdown or in isolation, have continued to work or stopped studying, none of us should be invisible or unaccounted. Every experience matters and this survey will help give people a voice and a chance to share their stories from across the globe.”
