Wearable Devices Enable Long COVID Patients to Decrease Symptom Severity: A Case Series From Pilot User Testing 2025 Vogel et al

[Andy]

Abstract
Purpose:
Long COVID is a debilitating condition that is estimated to affect over 65M individuals across the world after a Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and has no broadly effective treatments. People with Long COVID have reported that pacing helps manage their symptoms, but it is difficult to implement. Based on experiences in the Long COVID community, we hypothesized that wearable devices can help individuals pace and reduce their Long COVID symptom severity.

Methods:
To inform the design of a larger study, we performed user testing by distributing Garmin® devices, the study surveys and pacing educational materials to 11 individuals with Long COVID, and conducting interviews to learn about their experience.

Results:
Eight of the 9 (89%) individuals reported that the information provided was helpful for their symptom management, and 2 testers did not complete the final survey. Four (44%) users had not used a wearable device before and none had trouble setting up their device. Due to the limited sample size and lack of control group, generalizability is unknown.

Conclusions:
The most user testers reported that the study materials were helpful for their symptom management. These results are a promising indication of the potential for wearable devices and educational materials to help individuals with Long COVID, and potentially other chronic conditions such as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), decrease symptom severity.

Open access

 

[Utsikt]

Devices were provided at no cost to the tester and came with manufacturer instructions and recommendations on how to set it up. In addition, educational materials that had been developed for the full study on symptom mitigation and general guidelines to use the device to help with pacing were also provided.

Are anyone able to find the educational material?

 

[Utsikt]

Ethical Considerations
The Scripps Institutional Review Board reviewed the pilot study, and it determined that it was exempt from full review given that identifiable data were not being collected.

It’s news to me that anonymised data is exempt from ethical review.

 

[Utsikt]

Pacing, the careful management of exertion, is 1 effective way to manage one of the most common Long COVID challenges - postexertional malaise (PEM), also called postexertional neuroimmune exhaustion and postexertional symptom exacerbation.7,8 PEM is also a key feature of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), a condition with significant overlap with Long COVID. Postexertional malaise is the worsening of symptoms that would otherwise be tolerated. Worsening symptoms can include physical fatigue, cognitive difficulties, sleep issues, and loss of stamina. Postexertional malaise can occur immediately or a few days after exertion.2,9

I don’t think they understand what PEM is based on this description.

 

[Utsikt]

By combining previous research findings and the patient experiences described within the Body Politic COVID-19 community, we designed a study, called the Long COVID Wearable Study,29 to evaluate whether wrist-worn wearables and educational materials could help patients pace and reduce Long COVID symptom severity. Here we describe the result of user testing that was done as part of the study design process. We plan to follow this with a randomized control trial with 1000 participants.

29 is this:
https://www.s4me.info/threads/the-l...slational-science-institute-california.36078/

 

[Dolphin]

Clinical Pearls

• •Pacing, the careful management of exertion, is used to manage conditions such as ME/CFS; however, it is difficult to implement.
• •Early data from user testing to inform a larger study is consistent with the patient community's reported benefit of using wrist-worn wearables to support people with Long COVID in implementing pacing.
• •By providing personalized, real-time data, wrist-worn wearables can help people with Long COVID identify and prioritize exertion based on their personal disease presentation and lifestyle.

https://twitter.com/user/status/1909594919838117955

 

[Dolphin]

Lived Experience Perspective
Below are quotes from user testers regarding the study materials.

1. “Through this wearables study…I have made adjustments and accommodations in my lifestyle, empowering me to care for myself in a more proactive way.”
2. “My participation…has greatly helped in managing the fatigue, along with many other things.”
3. “I never fully recovered (March 2020) from Covid, the Long COVID Wearable Study has by far been the most helpful. I've done so much research on my own, before the study, that my doctor said I could run my own clinic.”
4. “I long thought I dodged heart-related issues as I never developed characteristic symptoms in 2020 to 2022. I also didn't connect recent heart rate changes to other long-term symptoms I've had since 2020. However, thanks to the wearable, I'm connecting the dots and getting additional medical care in month 35 of my long haul for a cluster of symptoms that I didn't associate with cardiology.”