Development and Validation of a Mobile Application as an Adjuvant Treatment for People Diagnosed with Long COVID-19: Protocol for a Co-Creation Study of a Health Asset and an Analysis of Its Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness

Abstract

Objective: To analyse the overall effectiveness and cost-efficiency of a mobile application (APP) as a community health asset (HA) with recommendations and recovery exercises created bearing in mind the main symptoms presented by patients in order to improve their quality of life, as well as other secondary variables, such as the number and severity of ongoing symptoms, physical and cognitive functions, affective state, and sleep quality. Methods: The first step was to design and develop the technologic community resource, the APP, following the steps involved in the process of recommending health assets (RHA). After this, a protocol of a randomised clinical trial for analysing its effectiveness and cost-efficiency as a HA was developed. The participants will be assigned to: (1st) usual treatment by the primary care practitioner (TAU), as a control group; and (2nd) TAU + use of the APP as a HA and adjuvant treatment in their recovery + three motivational interviews (MI), as an interventional group. An evaluation will be carried out at baseline with further assessments three and six months following the end of the intervention. Discussion: Although research and care for these patients are still in their initial stages, it is necessary to equip patients and health care practitioners with tools to assist in their recovery. Furthermore, enhanced motivation can be achieved through telerehabilitation (TR).

Effectiveness of a telerehabilitation intervention using Recovery APP of Long COVID patients: A randomized, three-month follow-up clinical trial

“…This RCT was registered in the ISRCTN Registry platform (registry number: ISRCTN91104012) on 10/02/2022. The original study protocol speci es multiple methodological aspects and has recently been published 27 .…”

“…All of the details on the creation process, contents, and bibliographical references for the ReCoVery APP are detailed in the protocol article of this study 27 .…”

Effectiveness of ReCOVery APP to improve the quality of life of Long COVID patients: a 6-month follow-up randomized clinical trial

“…All its contents must be graduated and personalized according to the needs and characteristics of each patient, as indicated in the available instructions. All the details about the contents and bibliographic references of ReCOVery APP were collected in the protocol article of this RCT (26,27). ReCOVery APP consists of six main modules: - 1) Food.…”

“…The baseline evaluation and start of the intervention were carried out in March-April 2022, the follow-up evaluation in June-July 2022 (26), and the final evaluation was carried out in October 2022. In addition, the original protocol article of this investigation was published (27).…”

“…The sample size was established and detailed in the protocol article of this RCT study (27). The pre-post score difference of the Short Form-36 Health Survey Questionnaire (SF-36) instrument was used, considering the value of the highest possible standard deviation (SD) and a minimum expected difference of 19.3 points for the pre-post rating.…”