Week 1 of Government advised lock down during COVID-19 pandemic. Over 400 people (n=406) in the UK were randomly surveyed between 27th and 31st March via direct Facebook engagement as outreach from the Medsmart® community to understand their views towards COVID-19. This uses the terms and conditions and privacy of the Medsmart® community in the UK. Medsmart® engages with people who take medicines to support them in taking their medicines, and to understand their views about medicines and health conditions.
Topline findings:
- 63% are from the older age groups +50 years, with a female bias of 73% are shown to be the most engaged in talking about COVID-19.
- All engagement has been via Facebook showing high engagement in older age groups who are normally harder to reach.
- Over 80% of the response were by those that do not have COVID-19.
- 98% of people are practicing social distancing.
- 58% of people are not leaving the house and 34% are leaving the house once a day.
- Friends are family are mainly filling the void of getting supplies rather than online shopping (59% versus 18%).
- Of those who think they have COVID-19 over 95% are self-isolating and they are finding out information online (45%) and from the News (25%) rather than from medical professionals (10%).
- The key symptoms felt are : headache (57%), dry cough (53%) and aching limbs (48%) for more than a week.
- A small minority (<2%) indicated they have COVID 19 and of those 75% are self-diagnosing, taking care at home versus 25% having it confirmed and receiving medical care.
For us it is exciting to be capturing what people are talking about for COVID-19 and capturing the voice of the patient. The engagement is high across all age groups and we thank all those that are taking part.
Take care of yourself and family and stay safe.
Stay home, stay safe, and stay on top of your medicine with the Medsmart App.
