Ollier J, Neff S, Dworschak C, Sejdiji A, Santhanam P, Keller R, et al. (2021). Elena+ care for COVID-19, a pandemic lifestyle care intervention: Intervention design and study protocol. Frontiers in Public Health. 9:625640. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.625640

Researchers developed a new intervention to address the health impacts of COVID-19 and social isolation requirements. Elena+ is a digital health intervention delivered in a smartphone app available in iOS and Android devices in three languages (English, European Spanish, and Latin American Spanish) across seven countries. The study team plans to expand the availability of Elena+ in additional languages and countries. The app includes a conversational agent to interact with users and track individual progress over time. The app also offers personalized coaching across lifestyle health areas such as COVID-19 information, physical activity, mental health, sleep, and diet and nutrition. The app collects users’ ratings of their experiences, social demographics, and user profiles. The study team will assess the Elena+ intervention by analyzing participants’ self-reported health outcomes (COVID-19, diet and nutrition, sleep, anxiety, loneliness, physical activity, mental resources, wellbeing), user-selected behavioral intentions at the end of each coaching session, and self-reported actual behaviors. The study team will use panel data methods to track changes in health outcomes over time. Elena+ is designed to provide users quick access to information and lifestyle care through a digital health platform during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study will evaluate the intervention’s effectiveness and identify improvements needed to evolve and adapt.