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. 2020 Oct 5;8(10):e21692.
doi: 10.2196/21692.

Preventing and Addressing the Stress Reactions of Health Care Workers Caring for Patients With COVID-19: Development of a Digital Platform (Be + Against COVID)

José Joaquín Mira #  1   2   3   4 , María Asunción Vicente #  4   5 , Adriana Lopez-Pineda #  1   3 , Irene Carrillo #  1   3   4 , Mercedes Guilabert #  1   4 , César Fernández #  4   5 , Virtudes Pérez-Jover #  1   4 , Jimmy Martin Delgado  3 , Pastora Pérez-Pérez #  6 , Angel Cobos Vargas #  7 , María Pilar Astier-Peña #  8 , Olga Beatriz Martínez-García #  7 , Bárbara Marco-Gómez #  9 , Cristina Abad Bouzán #  9
Affiliations

Preventing and Addressing the Stress Reactions of Health Care Workers Caring for Patients With COVID-19: Development of a Digital Platform (Be + Against COVID)

José Joaquín Mira et al. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. .

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 became a major public health concern in March 2020. Due to the high rate of hospitalizations for COVID-19 in a short time, health care workers and other involved staff are subjected to a large workload and high emotional distress.

Objective: The objective of this study is to develop a digital tool to provide support resources that might prevent and consider acute stress reactions in health care workers and other support staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: The contents of the digital platform were created through an evidence-based review and consensus conference. The website was built using the Google Blogger tool. The Android version of the app was developed in the Java and XML languages using Android Studio version 3.6, and the iOS version was developed in the Swift language using Xcode version 11.5. The app was evaluated externally by the Andalusian Agency for Healthcare Quality.

Results: We detected the needs and pressing situations of frontline health care workers, and then, we proposed a serial of recommendations and support resources to address them. These resources were redesigned using the feedback received. A website in three different languages (Spanish, English, and Portuguese) and a mobile app were developed with these contents, and the AppSaludable Quality Seal was granted to the app. A specific self-report scale to measure acute stress and additional tools were included to support the health care workforce. This instrument has been used in several Latin American countries and has been adapted considering cultural differences. The resources section of the website was the most visited with 18,516 out of 68,913 (26.9%) visits, and the "Self-Report Acute Stress Scale" was the most visited resource with 6468 out of 18,516 (34.9%) visits.

Conclusions: The Be + against COVID platform (website and app) was developed and launched to offer a pool of recommendations and support resources, which were specifically designed to protect the psychological well-being and the work morale of health care workers. This is an original initiative different from the usual psychological assistance hotlines.

Keywords: COVID-19; app; health personnel; internet; mobile app; pandemic; psychosocial; social media; support system.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Home page and main menu from Be + against COVID website (computer view). ENG: English; ESP: Spanish; PT_BR: Brazilian Portuguese.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Be + against COVID platform development during the most critical phase of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The evaluation process to obtain the AppSaludable Quality Seal.
Figure 4
Figure 4
App design, test, evaluation, and review process.
Figure 5
Figure 5
App structure explained by screenshots.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Daily app downloads from official app stores.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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