Symptoms associated with a COVID-19 infection in the general population of Vienna

Background Most clinical studies report the symptoms experienced by those infected with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) via patients already hospitalised. Here we analyse the symptoms experienced by the general population in Vienna. Methods The Vienna Social Fund (FSW, Vienna, Austria), the Public Health Services of the City of Vienna (MA15) and the private company Symptoma collaborated to implement Vienna’s official online COVID-19 symptom checker. Users answered 12 yes/no questions about symptoms to assess their risk for COVID-19. They could also specify their age and sex, and whether they had contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Depending on the assessed risk of COVID-19 positivity, a SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) was performed. In this publication, we analysed which factors (symptoms, sex or age) are associated with COVID-19 positivity. We also trained a classifier to correctly predict COVID-19 positivity from the collected data. Results Between the 2nd of November 2020 and the 18th of November 2021, 9133 people experiencing COVID-19-like symptoms were assessed as high risk by the chatbot and were subsequently tested by a NAAT. Symptoms significantly associated with a positive COVID-19 test were malaise, fatigue, headache, cough, fever, dysgeusia and hyposmia. Our classifier could successfully predict COVID-19 positivity with an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.74. Conclusion This study provides reliable COVID-19 symptom statistics based on the general population verified by NAATs. ### Competing Interest Statement NM, SG, AM, JN, TL and BK are employees of Symptoma GmbH. JN and TL hold shares of Symptoma. ### Funding Statement This study has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 830017 and by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency under grant agreement No 880939 (supported by the Federal Ministries Republic of Austria for Digital and Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology). ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Ethics commission of the city of Vienna I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes All relevant data is contained within the manuscript