A new application predicts your risk of infection and illness by corona, depending on what you do and where you live.

Corona infections are once again dominating our daily lives. Many people wonder about their personal risk of contracting corona and becoming seriously ill from it. How do you go about your daily life and minimise your risk of infection at the same time?

Your risk of catching corona is determined by several factors

  1. The degree of coronavirus transmission in your daily environment: the more infections there are in your environment, the more risk there is of becoming infected yourself.
  2. Your behaviour: how many people have you seen in the past week, inside or outside? Are you following the recommended measures?
  3. Your susceptibility to the virus: personal factors such as your age, the presence of e.g. cardiovascular diseases, a healthy lifestyle can all help determine how sick the virus makes you.
  4. Vaccination: Have you been vaccinated? And if so, with which vaccine and how long ago?

BIBOPP, short in Dutch for Citizens in Motion with an Online Prevention Platform, already existed as a tool to improve your lifestyle and reduce your risk of disease. Recently, this platform included a new application: My corona risk. It calculates your personal risk of being infected with corona and the probability of a serious course of the disease.

How does it work?

First you complete a validated questionnaire on your health, the Health Guide by Domus Medica. Then you answer additional questions about your lifestyle, how many people you see and in what circumstances, adopting the recommended measures and vaccination. Combined with data about the infection rate in your city or town, the tool calculates a score. This score tells you how high the risk is of 

  1. contracting corona in your neighbourhood, 
  2. becoming seriously ill from a possible infection and 
  3. being hospitalised. 

​You can immediately see which factors reduce your risk and which actions you can therefore take yourself.

Scientists from Mathematica, a public health organisation in the United States, developed the algorithm used for this score calculation. The leading journal Nature already reported on this tool. Together with the BIBOPP team, the algorithm was translated to the Belgian situation, including the integration of the local infection rates as reported daily by Sciensano. 

Besides the calculation of your corona risk, BIBOPP also provides you with a personal action plan with several activities and care providers in your neighbourhood. With this, you can work to improve your overall health. It features activities to get more exercise such as walking routes and group sports sessions, cooking classes for healthy food, but also specialised, local care providers such as tobaccologists, dieticians, exercise coaches and so on. BOB, the BIBOPP chatbot will be happy to refer you to websites where you can find the right information, e.g. about vaccination, healthy nutrition, quitting smoking, etc.

 

Live your healthiest life!

Take the first step today and answer the questions on the BIBOPP website. 

BIBOPP is a collaboration of VITO, Zorgproeftuin LiCalab of Thomas More and Domus Medica and was realised with the support of VLAIO, Province of Antwerp and EmpowerCare (Interreg 2 Seas).

Facebook: @gezondheidsplatformBIBOPP

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+32 14 33 51 16
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