Scientists at the Scripps Research Digital Trials Center have teamed up
with health technology company Care Evolution to study whether or not
wrist-worn devices, such as activity trackers and smart watches, can help
people with long COVID manage and reduce the severity of their symptoms through
a technique called "pacing yourself."
Researchers have found common ground between long COVID and patients
struggling with worse symptoms after small physical, mental or even emotional
exertion. Scientists call this Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome, according to Scripps Research.
Long COVID symptoms
Long COVID patients were also found to be dealing with an increased
heart rate after standing up or walking, causing dizziness and heart
palpitations.
In both cases, patients said monitoring their level of energy use has
helped them to improve their symptom management. This technique is known as
pacing, and allows long COVID patients to learn their own maximum level for
energy exertion, which is shown by a number on their wrist-worn device.
"So what the wrist-worn-wearable does is gives you a metric of your
body battery, very similar to a cell phone battery, a number from zero to 100,
saying how much energy you have for that day. So it gives you feedback in real
time instead of having that delay of 48 hours, so that you can say, okay, you
know what? My battery is low. I need to rest now and recharge, or my battery is
high. I can take on that task today," Vogel said.
"While symptom management will not remove the root cause of long
COVID, we hope to validate the patient community’s experience that pacing is
currently one of the best ways to reduce symptom severity, and wearable devices
can help implement pacing," Vogel said.
One of the researchers used her own experience with long COVID to help
design the study. She said she and other patients often experience physical
exhaustion up to two days later and she hopes this will study will help people
better manage their symptoms.
“New treatments and interventions are urgently needed,” said the study's
principal investigator Julia Moore Vogel, PhD.
What is long COVID and how many people
suffer from it?
About 65 million people are living with long COVID and currently no
widely effective treatments exist, according to Scripps Research. Long COVID is
a collection of symptoms that start and continue after infection. It can impact
multiple organ systems such as respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological,
musculoskeletal and immunological. For myriad folks, long COVID changes the
lives of those who have it, according to Scripps.
In general, trackers that collect data on heart rate, heart rate variability, physical activity, sleep patterns and stress levels have been helpful in determining a patient's physiological state.The goal of the Long COVID Wearable Study is to figure out if the participating long COVID patients who wear the trackers and get educational materials on the pacing technique see the severity of their symptoms decrease, and to see if the tracker's brand makes a difference.
