Evaluating a Digital Patient Reported Outcome Measure for Long COVID in a Community Rehabilitation Service

Area of Science:

• Digital health interventions
• Rehabilitation medicine
• Patient-reported outcome measures

Background:

• Long COVID causes persistent symptoms impacting daily life and straining healthcare systems.
• A digital patient-reported outcome measure (PROm) app was implemented in a Long COVID rehabilitation pathway.
• User acceptability, uptake, and experience of the digital PROm app were largely unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the acceptability, uptake, and user experience of a digital PROm application in a Long COVID community rehabilitation setting.
• To identify enablers and barriers to the use of digital PROm tools for Long COVID patients.
• To gather user feedback for improving future digital health interventions.

Main Methods:

• A qualitative service evaluation using quantitative data from 100 users and semi-structured questionnaires from 20 participants.
• Quantitative data included registration, usage patterns, and demographics over 2 months.
• Template analysis was employed to explore user experiences, enablers, and barriers.

Main Results:

• App engagement varied based on education, employment, and digital literacy, with 38% active users.
• Qualitative themes revealed value in digital symptom monitoring but highlighted issues with navigation, question clarity, and feature awareness.
• Barriers included usability challenges and lack of clear guidance on app functions.

Conclusions:

• Digital PROm tools offer opportunities for enhancing Long COVID care.
• Improvements in usability, information clarity, and guidance are crucial for optimizing user engagement.
• User feedback provides essential insights for developing and implementing more effective future digital PROm applications.