Patients’ lived experience of long-Covid an IPA from primary care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Patients’ Lived Experience of Long-COVID: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis within an Integrated Primary Care Psychological Service
IRAS ID
299643
Contact name
Lilian Skilbeck
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
East London NHS Foundation Trust- Noclor Research Support Service
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 10 months, 1 days
Research summary
Summary of Research
The current project is being proposed by the integrated Improving Access to Psychological Therapy (IAPT) Service of East London NHS Foundation Trust. This IAPT pathway is for patients presenting with psychological symptoms within the context of a persistent physical health problem, in this case Long-COVID. Given the novelty of long-COVID, clinicians are still discovering ways of managing patients. These patients have been managed by MDTs but also encouraged to self-manage their symptoms. These patients have presented with a range of physical symptoms including fatigue, cognitive impairment (brain fog), breathlessness and headaches. These symptoms seem to vary between patients and may also vary within patients. This has left both clinicians and patients unclear on the best interventions. One of the helpful methods to understand long-COVID is to learn from the patients via lived experience research. This has been illustrated elsewhere where interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to inform the management of chronic pain. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to apply IPA to inform the management of long-COVID. The plan is to recruit a sample of patients n = 4-6 who have had long-COVID symptoms for at least 12-weeks and presented for primary care psychological support. Patients at different stages in their IAPT pathway will be invited to participate in the study. Those volunteering will complete a 60-90-minute semi-structured interviews conducted either face-to-face in an ELFT office or online. This will elicit their lived experience of long COVID and will be completely independent from their treatment plan. These accounts will be transcribed and analysed via IPA in order to derive themes which could yield information on how to manage long-COVID.Summary of Results
This study uncovered the lived experience of long COVID in participants. The results from this study uncovered the lived subjective biopsychosocial experiences of long COVID chronic illness. Traditionally, patients receive care and recommendations from healthcare professionals. However, as long COVID is a new illness, this care model was limited. The participants in the current study described being left with a sense of uncertainty and role confusion. However, participants were able to realize their locus of control over their long COVID illness progression.
This illustrates that patients have the resources to uncover the unknowns of this new illness which could inform clinical practice and further research. This suggests that that long COVID needs to be approached from a biopsychosocial perspective which emphasises patient involvement.REC name
North East - York Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/NE/0200
Date of REC Opinion
12 Oct 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion