Digital home monitoring for capturing daily fluctuation of symptoms; a longitudinal repeated measures study: Long Covid Multi-disciplinary Consortium to Optimise Treatments and Services across the NHS (a LOCOMOTION study)

Introduction A substantial proportion of COVID-19 survivors continue to have symptoms more than 3 months after infection, especially of those who required medical intervention. Lasting symptoms are wide-ranging, and presentation varies between individuals and fluctuates within an individual. Improved understanding of undulation in symptoms and triggers may improve efficacy of healthcare providers and enable individuals to better self-manage their Long Covid. We present a protocol where we aim to develop and examine the feasibility and usability of digital home monitoring for capturing daily fluctuation of symptoms in individuals with Long Covid and provide data to facilitate a personalised approach to the classification and management of Long Covid symptoms.Methods and analysis This study is a longitudinal prospective cohort study of adults with Long Covid accessing 10 National Health Service (NHS) rehabilitation services in the UK. We aim to recruit 400 people from participating NHS sites. At referral to study, 6 weeks and 12 weeks, participants will complete demographic data (referral to study) and clinical outcome measures, including ecological momentary assessment (EMA) using personal mobile devices. EMA items are adapted from the COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale items and include self-reported activities, symptoms and psychological factors. Passive activity data will be collected through wrist-worn sensors. We will use latent class growth models to identify trajectories of experience, potential phenotypes defined by co-occurrence of symptoms and inter-relationships between stressors, symptoms and participation in daily activities. We anticipate that n=300 participants provide 80% power to detect a 20% improvement in fatigue over 12 weeks in one class of patients relative to another.Ethics and dissemination The study was approved by the Yorkshire & The Humber-Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee (ref: 21/YH/0276). Findings will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publications and presented at conferences.

Automated summary

A considerable number of COVID-19 survivors still experience symptoms more than 3 months after infection, especially those who required medical intervention. The study aims to develop and test the feasibility and usability of digital home monitoring to track daily fluctuations of symptoms in individuals with Long Covid, and provide data for personalized classification and management of Long Covid symptoms.