Evaluation of paediatric Long COVID services - Version 1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
LoCATE (Long COVID in Adolescents Treatment Evaluation): a mixed methods approach to evaluate Long COVID services for Adolescents.
IRAS ID
308384
Contact name
Katharine Pike
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Research Governance Team
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 9 months, 1 days
Research summary
Summary of Research
Long COVID can be diagnosed in adolescents if symptoms persist for longer than 3 months following COVID infection and cannot be explained by anything else (1).
Little is known about how to treat Long COVID in adolescents. As the most common symptom is fatigue, many children and young people (CYP) are assessed and treated in fatigue services. In 2021, new multidisciplinary paediatric hubs were created to provide assessment and advice on investigations and treatment. There is no evidence on whether these services are acceptable to CYP with Long COVID, or likely to be effective.
This is a mixed methods study to evaluate the acceptability of Long COVID clinics. We will assess a large specialist fatigue service with a rapid access Long COVID clinic and a regional multi-disciplinary paediatric Long COVID hub. We will use qualitative methods (interviews) to understand the views of adolescents who access these clinics with regards to how acceptable and accessible the clinics are and to find out what could be improved. We will run focus groups for the clinicians who work at these services and refer patients to the services to gain insight on what is working well, and which aspects could be improved. Patients routinely complete patient reported outcomes measures (PROMS) prior to assessment. We will ask Participants to complete these at 6 months to understand the level of change in symptom domains. This will inform future sample size calculations.
Children aged 11-17 who have attended the Long COVID services, clinicians who provide treatment and those who refer patients will be recruited for this study.
The project has internal funding from the University of Bristol. Recruitment will occur in the centres which take part: Bath Fatigue service, Bristol Children’s Hospital. The study will last for 21 months.
1. COVID-19 rapid guideline: managing the long-term effects of COVID-19 NICE2021 [Available from: https://app.magicapp.org/#/guideline/EQpzKn/section/n3vwoL.
Summary of Results
Four themes were reported. Accessing specialist clinics helped CYP to feel validated; they appreciated consulting with clinicians who were knowledgeable about long covid and empathetic. CYP found comfort in knowing other CYP were experiencing long covid. CYP wanted to be proactive in their long covid management, appreciating regular appointments and the opportunity to learn about their condition. CYP desired normality, and therefore sought flexible appointment times, online appointments and reasonable adjustments. CYP found the waiting times to access long covid services were too long.
REC name
London - Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/PR/0097
Date of REC Opinion
31 Mar 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion