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

Abstract

Background: Long COVID pathology affects patient quality of life. Different telerehabilitation (TR) strategies are being implemented to improve post-COVID symptoms. The main objective of this study is to analyze the efficacy of the ReCoVery Application (APP) over a three-month period. A second objective is to identify significant models associated with improvement. Methods: An open-label and randomized clinical trial (RCT) was conducted, using two parallel groups. A total of one hundred Long COVID patients participated in the study. Quality of life was the main variable examined. A statistical comparison of pre-three-month groups was made using T-student and chi-square, and linear regressions were performed to analyze the profile of those patients who improved. Results: Adherence to the ReCoVery APP was low, and was not significantly more effective as compared to no intervention. However, the time of use of the ReCoVery APP, an increase in the self-efficacy construct and health literacy could contribute to the recovery of Long COVID patients. Conclusion: It is necessary to improve Long COVID patient adherence to TR. Furthermore, future RCTs are still needed to assess the efficacy of TR in these patients.

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 recruitment of patients was carried out from January 2022 to March 2022. 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).…”

“…Various investigations have reported numerous dropouts of a notable percentage of participants (48,52,62), as well as poor adherence as shown in this study. However, in the short term, the time of use of ReCOVery APP was not found to be correlated with the improvement of the general quality of life and mental health of the participants (26). Therefore, these medium-term analyzes are promising given the effectiveness of APP.…”

“…It is a digital tool with rehabilitation content based on clinical guidelines and evidence (11,(22)(23)(24)(25). An RCT with two parallel groups was conducted to assess its shortterm clinical effectiveness (26). However, it is necessary to know the effectiveness of this intervention in the medium term.…”