Researchers at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) are being funded to examine whether a long-standing approach to helping people with ME manage their symptoms can help people with long covid deal with extreme fatigue.

The investigation is one of 15 projects being supported by £20 million from the UK National Institute for Health Research.

The UWS team will work with long covid sufferers who have reported low energy levels - who often report feeling exhausted after undertaking day-to-day tasks.

By asking people to track their daily activities, the researchers will use a technique called adaptive pacing therapy, sending ‘just in time’ notifications to people’s smart phones at any time that they risk overexertion.

Research lead Professor Nicholas Sculthorpe, an expert in clinical exercise physiology at UWS, says long covid creates huge difficulties for people affected by it:

“Long covid symptoms change regularly, often getting worse after certain activities.

“Adaptive pacing is a way for people who experience these symptoms to better manage their day-to-day tasks.

“In order to be effective, adaptive pacing therapy needs people to continuously track their daily activities and balance what they plan to do, with how much energy they feel they have. But it’s not always easy as the amount of activity that’ll cause symptoms to get worse for one person may be different for another.

“With help from people with long covid, this project aims to make adaptive pacing easier for people to use.

“Using technology developed by UWS, we will track activity for individuals from their Fitbits and send them alerts if they risk doing too much. The aim is to help those with long covid better plan their daily activities and prevent periods where symptoms become worse. Over time, we’ll look for ways to scale up the process to help more people.”

Earlier this year we reported on the push by ME organisations for healthcare professionals across Scotland to undertake a one-hour training course to help their understanding of ME, giving them insights into a set of symptoms shared by many long covid patients.

The adaptive pacing study is the second long covid -related research project being undertaken at UWS.

In February, the university agreed to lead a project tracking and identifying trends in the symptoms of people with persistent Long Covid.

Read More: Leanne’s story – living with long covid First long covid guidelines ‘just a starting point’; Call for new guidance as ME sufferers not believed; 

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