Previously submitted to: JMIR mHealth and uHealth (no longer under consideration since Nov 28, 2022)
Date Submitted: Nov 17, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Effectiveness of eHealth and mHealth for Distress During COVID-19 in a Medicalized Quarantine Hotel in Taiwan: A Retrospective Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
In Taiwan, the number of confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases has been rising significantly since May 2021. The second wave of the epidemic occurred in May 2022
Objective:
This study aimed to describe the process of using eHealth (Hospital Information System) and mHealth (mobile health - social media communities such as Line, WeChat, WhatsApp, and Facebook) to build a medicalized quarantine hotel (MQH) and to gain an understanding of the physical and mental impact of COVID-19 on patients admitted to an MQH.
Methods:
In this retrospective observational study, we gathered data from 357 patients who stayed at the MQH and assessed their psychological symptoms using an online Brief Symptom Rating Scale (BSRS). Descriptive statistics, an independent sample t-test, a univariate analysis of variance, and a multiple linear regression analysis were performed.
Results:
The patients’ mean age was 35.5±17.6 years; 52.1% (n=186) of the patients were male. Altogether, 25.2% (n=90) of the patients had virtual visits. The average hotel stay was 6.8±1.4 days, and five patients (0.01%) were transferred back to the hospital. The three most common symptoms were cough, stuffy/runny nose, and sore throat. Most patients achieved a BSRS total score of 0–5 points (3569/91.0%), with trouble falling asleep (0.65±0.65), feeling tense or high-strung (0.31±0.66), and feeling down or depressed (0.27±0.62) being reported frequently. The BSRS total score was the highest on the first day. Sex was significantly correlated with BSRS score(p value<0.001 ).
Conclusions:
The MQH provided medical care. eHealth and mHealth can be used to further monitor an individual’s physiological and psychological states. Early intervention measures are needed to improve health care quality.
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