Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Mar 8, 2022
Date Accepted: Aug 22, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Jan 10, 2023
Public use of ‘Your COVID Recovery®’ a website designed to help individuals manage their COVID recovery: Observational study
ABSTRACT
Background:
In July 2020, the Your COVID Recovery® website was launched by University Hospitals of Leicester in partnership with NHS England with the aim of creating a practical tool that provides advice and support to individuals recovering from COVID.
Objective:
To determine public use of the Your COVID Recovery® website and user behaviour during its first year of operation.
Methods:
Google Analytics software that was integrated into the Your COVID Recovery® website was used to assess website use and user behaviour between 31st July 2020 and 31st July 2021. Variables that were tracked included number of users, user country of residence, traffic source, number of page views, number of session views, and mean session duration. User data was compared to COVID case data downloaded from the United Kingdom Government website.
Results:
During the study period 2,062,394 users accessed the website. Most users were located in the UK (1265061; 61.3%). The most frequently visited pages after the home page were Cough (550190; 12.17%), Fatigue (432421; 9.56%), Musculoskeletal, shoulder and back pain (406859; 9.00%), Taste and smell (270599; 5.98%), and Breathlessness (203136; 4.49%). The average session duration was 1 minute and 13 seconds.
Conclusions:
The Your COVID Recovery® website has been accessed by more than 2 million users, demonstrating that a large cohort of individuals are keen to receive support with their COVID recovery from a digital healthcare platform. Individuals are primarily interested in gaining advice on how to relieve and manage COVID symptoms, especially symptoms of cough, fatigue, and musculoskeletal pain. COVID rehabilitation programmes should utilise the results of this study to ensure programme content meets the needs of the post-COVID population.
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