Evidence

The study uses Living With’s data from the Covid Recovery product (LWCR).

The study concludes with the following paragraph: “In this first UK national study reporting clinical symptoms from patients referred for assessment and treatment of PCS, we demonstrate high levels of functional impairment and low HRQoL. Fatigue appears to be the symptom most strongly associated with functional impairment. Currently, clinical services lack evidence-based approaches in treating patients experiencing fatigue related to PCS with no standard rehabilitation pathway. This requires further targeted research. Our future work to explore the recovery trajectory of patients using the LWCR DHI may help to establish the extent to which WSAS and other PROMs are sensitive to changes in the health of a patient with PCS. This work can contribute to the identification of PROMs best suited for use in assessing, managing and treating patients with PCS, both digitally and in face- to-face appointments.”

Read more on BMJ Journals.

Findings show that Living With Covid Recovery ‘strengths include the inter-disciplinary approach, with a partnership between patients, clinicians, industry and academics, plus combining approaches used in engineering/computer science, for example, UCD and the HCI lifecycle, with those more familiar to biomedical researchers, for example, the MRC Framework for complex interventions. The strong use of theory to underpin the research should enhance transferability of findings.’

‘This initial study will provide considerable insight into patient, clinician and health service requirements for digitally supported rehabilitation for long COVID-19, together with very substantial, real world data on acceptability, uptake and use, going far beyond the usual pilot studies so often used as evidence of acceptability and feasibility, with data on scalable, and hopefully, sustainable, deployment. It will also generate data on symptoms and illness trajectories in a treatment-seeking population which includes non- hospitalised patients, making it unique among current cohort studies. Long-term investment will require causal evidence of effectiveness, and NIHR has funded the STIMULATE-ICP project, which includes a cluster randomised controlled trial comparing LWCR to standard care, due to report in 2023.’

Read more on BMJ Open.