Assessing the feasibility of an educational trial to promote long COVID management in general practice: a study protocol.

Conference:

SAPC ASM 2024 - Bristol

Talk Code:

2C.5

Presenter:

John Broughan

Twitter:

@broughan_john

Co-authors:

John Broughan1, Geoff McCombe2, Claire Collins3,4, Orla Doyle5, Walter Cullen2

Author institutions:

1 Clinical Research Centre, School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. 2School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. 3 Irish College of General Practitioners, Dublin, Ireland. 4 Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium. 5 School of Economics, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ire

Problem

Research suggests that general practitioners are well positioned to address the challenges of Long COVID. Still, studies that have systematically evaluated GP-based long COVID interventions are lacking. The study outlined in this protocol aims to address this issue. The study will evaluate the feasibility of a co-designed educational trial that aims to promote best practice for the management of long COVID in GP settings.

Approach

A mixed methods design informed by the MRC’s 2021 framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions will be used. A stepped approach involving ongoing stakeholder consultation, intervention co-design, implementation, and evaluation processes will take place, and the intervention will be evaluated in terms of its feasibility as per Bowen et al.’s feasibility study framework. The educational intervention will involve providing GPs with a long COVID toolkit for reading, the opportunity to attend a long COVID themed educational webinar, academic detailing, and GP case reviews of long COVID patients attending their practices.

Findings

The study’s findings will demonstrate the intervention’s feasibility as per Bowen et al.’s feasibility framework under eight dimensions: Acceptability, Demand, Implementation, Practicality, Adaptability, Integration, Expansion, and (limited) Efficacy. Evaluation of these dimensions will be illustrated by quantitative and qualitative outcomes pertaining to practice and patient level study recruitment and retention data, intervention co-design focus group transcripts, baseline GP / Practice (n=6) and patient (n=48) characteristics, long COVID patient scores on the COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale, and post intervention qualitative interviews with GPs.

Consequences

The proposed study will aim to make a meaningful contribution to emerging research, policy directives, and clinical practice initiatives around the topic of long COVID management, especially in general practice settings.

Submitted by:

John Broughan

Funding acknowledgement:

We would like to thank the Health Research Board, the Ireland East Hospital Group, the UCD College of Health and Agricultural Sciences/School of Medicine and this study’s participants for the important roles that they played in making this research project happen.