Design of a Mobile Application and Evaluation of Its Effects on Psychological Parameters of Covid-19 Inpatients: A Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

TLDR: In this paper, the authors proposed a mobile application to evaluate patients' physical and psychological conditions during the treatment via a randomized, two parallel-group, controlled trial, where the primary outcome was the change to the depression anxiety stress scales-21 (DASS-21) score from the baseline to 2 weeks after discharge from hospital.

Abstract: Background: Panic of the disease and the associated concerns can lower the quality of life and physical performance As long as the COVID-19 pandemic is ever on the rise, the psychological pandemic of the disease is on the rise, too The high prevalence of COVID-19 has further increased physicians' work pressure Patients' needs are not met adequately by physicians It seems essential to use aids to monitor patients' needs and serve them properly Thus, in the present research, suggestions are made on how to evaluate patients' physical and psychological conditions during the treatment via a mobile application Methods and Analysis: The present research is a randomized, two parallel-group, controlled trial One-hundred-twelve inpatients diagnosed with the coronavirus will be assigned randomly to the control and intervention groups In the intervention group, a mobile application will be provided to educate patients, establish two-way interactions between patients and care providers and record patients' symptoms Those in the control group will receive the usual care The primary outcome is the change to the depression anxiety stress scales-21 (DASS-21) score from the baseline to 2 weeks after discharge from hospital It will be measured at the baseline, at the time of discharge, and two weeks later Ethics and Dissemination: The Ethics committee of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences' approval date was 2020-04-19 with IRMUMSREC1399118 reference code Thus far, participants' recruitment has not been completed and is scheduled to end in March 2021 The results will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal Trial Registration: IRCT20170922036314N4 (https://wwwirctir/trial/47383)