The self-report version and digital format of the COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale (C19-YRS) for Long Covid or Post-COVID syndrome assessment and monitoring

Abstract

The C19-YRS was the first scale reported in the literature for patient assessment and monitoring in Long Covid or Post-COVID syndrome. The scale has demonstrated content validity in a previous COVID-19 follow-up study. The growing number of patients with Post-COVID syndrome required the development of a self-report version (and a digital format) so that the scale can be completed by patients themselves. Individuals with Long Covid and clinicians providing care were involved in iterative changes to the scale. The self-report version of the scale captures symptom severity, functional disability and global health status. The C19-YRS digital format comprises a smartphone application for the patient and a web portal for the clinician to assess, triage and monitor patients remotely. The items have been shown to span all the components of the WHO ICF Framework for health condition.

The modified COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale (C19-YRSm) patient-reported outcome measure for Long Covid or Post-COVID syndrome

“…There is also a digital format of the scale available where the patient completes the questionnaire on a smartphone application and the clinicians accesses the results on a web portal and both use the system to monitor progress and response to ongoing treatments for LC. 8…”

“…Pre-COVID scores are also captured for comparison. 8 Q 1-10 form the symptom severity subscale (score 0-100), Q11-15 the functional disability subscale (0-50), Q16 is the overall health score (0-10) and Q 17-22 the additional symptoms subscale (0-60). 16 The classical psychometric analysis of the C19-YRS in a sample of 188 LC patients showed good data quality, satisfactory scaling and targeting and high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.891), with good reliability of individual subscales.…”

“…5 A multidisciplinary team (MDT) of rehabilitation professionals working with patients recovering from COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic developed the original version of C19-YRS. [6][7][8] The content was based on staff experience of managing these patients, knowledge from our systematic review of previous outbreaks and feedback on the scale from patients and healthcare professionals. [7][8][9] The content was decided using a consensus method and the scale was kept balanced in terms of questions spanning all aspects of the 2001 WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework.…”

“…[6][7][8] The content was based on staff experience of managing these patients, knowledge from our systematic review of previous outbreaks and feedback on the scale from patients and healthcare professionals. [7][8][9] The content was decided using a consensus method and the scale was kept balanced in terms of questions spanning all aspects of the 2001 WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework. 10 The content validity of the scale was supported by studies 11,12 using the scale which revealed symptoms and functional problems similar to other LC studies in the literature.…”

“…There is also a digital format of the scale available where the patient completes the questionnaire on a smartphone application and the clinicians accesses the results on a web portal and both use the system to monitor progress and response to ongoing treatments for LC. 8 The original C19-YRS is a 22-item patient-reported outcome measure (PROM), with each item rated on a 0-10 numerical rating scale, where 0 represents symptom not present and 10 represents symptom being extremely severe or life disturbing. The C19-YRS is broken down into four subscales concerned with the severity of patients' key symptoms, functional limitations, overall health and additional symptoms.…”