Research by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and AI sleep technology company Sleep Cycle indicates that cough data gathered through a smartphone app could offer an early warning system for respiratory illnesses.
The study found that passive data collected by the Sleep Cycle app provided a consistent indicator of community respiratory illness in England. Increases in coughing were often seen approximately one week before rises in influenza and COVID-19 activity.
This digital health data could complement existing surveillance systems, which rely on individuals seeking care and can be affected by factors such as public awareness, service availability, and reporting delays. The app's cough signal is generated automatically during sleep, using privacy-preserved data, and is updated daily.
Professor Steven Riley, Chief Data Officer at UKHSA, stated that combining established surveillance with novel digital health signals could lead to a more timely and robust understanding of population respiratory health. Dr. Mikael Kågebäck, Chief Technology Officer at Sleep Cycle, highlighted that the study validates a new category of health data, demonstrating that passively generated smartphone data can produce population-level health intelligence.