JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The COVID-19 pandemic is demanding much from citizens, healthcare providers, and governmental institutions. Citizens, for instance, need to cope with guidelines on social interaction, work, home isolation, and symptom recognition. Additionally, healthcare providers and policymakers need to manage unprecedented and unpredictable pressure on the healthcare system. Providing citizens with an app gives them access to the latest information and enables them to assess their own health. These data could be used to support policymakers and healthcare providers to obtain valuable insights into the regional distribution of infection load and healthcare consumption.

Objective:

The primary aim of this observational study was to assess people’s usage of an app that supports them by providing COVID-19 education, self-assessment and the ability to monitor their own health for a 7-day period. In addition, we aimed to assess how this data would be useful for healthcare providers and policymakers by applying it to an interactive map and combining it with hospital data. The secondary outcomes of the study were users’ satisfaction with the information provided by the app, its perceived usefulness, details about the healthcare providers they contacted, and the follow-up actions from such contact.

Methods:

This observational cohort study was conducted at the nonacademic teaching hospital “Elisabeth Twee Steden” (ETZ) in Tilburg, the Netherlands. From April 1, 2020 onward, ETZ offered COVID-19 education, self-assessment and a symptom tracking diary to their already existing app for patient education and monitoring.

Results:

Between April 1 and April 20, 2020, a total of 6194 people downloaded the app. The self-assessment functionality was used often to check one’s health status. In total, 5104 people responded to the question about severe symptoms, of which 242 indicated experiencing them. A total of 4929 people responded to the question regarding mild symptoms, of which 3248 indicated that they suffered from these symptoms (65.9%). The data were successfully applied to an interactive map displaying user demographics and health status. Furthermore, we were able to link the app user’s data to the clinical data on a postal code level. App users were satisfied with the information in the app (mean 8, 0–10 scale) and appreciated the symptom diary functionality (mean 8, 0–10 scale). In total, 102 users contacted a healthcare provider, which subsequently led to 91 contacts.

Conclusions:

Our study demonstrated the successful implementation and use of an app with COVID-19 education, self-assessment, and a 7-day symptom diary. Overall, users were satisfied with the information supplied through the app and appreciated its functionality. Data collected with the app were successfully applied to an interactive map displaying postal code specific demographics, health status, and healthcare consumption. These data could be used to support policymakers and healthcare providers to obtain valuable insights into the regional distribution of infection load and healthcare consumption. Clinical Trial: Netherlands Trial Register (NTR): 8501; https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/8501