How to study work-effect without patient recruitment

This study bypasses the usual need for patient selection and recruitment by using  a freely available cell phone app which has daily visual analogue scores for rhinitis, eye irritation and "how much has your allergic symptoms affected your work today" Users have to consent to their data being used anonymously for research, and does contain geolocation data the area level. It shows a strong correlation between allergic symptoms and affect on work. Those providing data were not recruited by advertisement, who and why they took part is unknown. This is an interesting way of extending research to a wider group of subjects. The app can be downloaded from app stores as "allergy diary"

References

	Bousquet J, Bewick M, Arnavielhe S, Mathieu-Dupas E, Murray R, Bedbrook A, Caimmi DP, Vandenplas O, Hellings PW, Bachert C, Anto JM, Bergmann KC, Bindslev-Jensen C, Bosnic-Anticevich S, Bouchard J, Canonica GW, Chavannes NH, Cruz AA, Dahl R, Demoly P, De Vries G, Devillier P, Fink-Wagner A, Fokkens WJ, Fonseca J, Guldemond NA, Haahtela T, Hellqvist-Dahl B, Just J, Keil T, Klimek L, Kowalski ML, Kuna P, Kvedariene V, Laune D, Larenas-Linnemann D, Mullol J, Pereira AM, Carreiro-Martins P, Melén E, Morais-Almeida M, Nogueira-Silva L, OHehir RE, Papadopoulos NG, Passalacqua G, Portejoie F, Price D, Ryan D, Samolinski B, Sheikh A, Simons FER, Spranger O, Todo Bom A, Tomazic PV, Triggiani M, Valero A, Valovirta E, Valiulis A, van Eerd M, Wickman M, Young I, Zuberbier T, Work productivity in rhinitis using cell phones: The MASK pilot study, Allergy, 2017;72:1475-1484,10.1111/all.13177

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