Background There are evidence suggesting that quarantine might have undesirable psychological impacts on the patients. Therefore, it is important to seek for ways to alleviate the psychological pressure as well as increase the resilience of the patients who are quarantined due to infection with COVID-19. The present study was conducted to examine the effect of an online multimedia psychoeducational intervention on perceived stress and resilience of patients hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19. Method: Participants in this fully online trial were 50 consecutive patients who were hospitalized in 2 hospitals in Shiraz, after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Before the start of intervention, four inpatient wards of two hospitals were randomly assigned to either experimental or control condition. All eligible participants in wards allocated to the intervention condition received online multimedia psychoeducational interventions during 2 weeks, whilst patients in wards allocated to the control condition only received face-to-face or telephone based psychological counseling in case of need. Psychoeducational interventions mainly included cognitive–behavioural techniques, mindfulness-based stress reduction and positive psychotherapy. Patients were assessed on perceived stress and resilience at baseline and 2 weeks later. Results Compared with the control group, patients who used online multimedia psychoeducational interventions reported fewer perceived stress and greater resilience after 2 weeks. Discussion The findings of the present study provide a successful first attempt at implementing online multimedia psychoeducational interventions to promote resilience and mitigate stress of patients who are hospitalized due to infection with COVID-19. The present results could help mental health professionals to determine which psychological techniques should be emphasized to promote patients' resilience in the context of COVID-19 disease.

Background: There is evidence suggesting that quarantine might have undesirable psychological impacts on the patients. Therefore, it is important to seek for ways to increase the resilience and alleviate the psychological pressure of the patients who are quarantined due to infection with COVID-19. The present study was conducted to assess an online multimedia psychoeducational intervention regarding the feasibility, adherence, patient satisfaction and effectiveness on resilience and perceived stress of patients hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19.Method: This was a pilot cluster randomized parallel-controlled trial with hospital ward as the unit of randomization. Participants in this fully online trial were 50 consecutive patients who were hospitalized in 2 hospitals in Shiraz, after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Before the beginning of the intervention, four inpatient wards of the two hospitals were randomly assigned to either experimental or control conditions. All eligible participants in the wards allocated to the intervention condition received online multimedia psychoeducational interventions during 2 weeks, whilst the patients in the wards allocated to the control condition were offered the opportunity to receive telephone-based psychological counseling if needed. Psychoeducational interventions mainly included cognitive–behavioural techniques, stress management techniques, mindfulness-based stress reduction and positive psychotherapy. The patients were assessed regarding resilience and perceived stress at baseline and 2 weeks later. Results: Of 27 patients starting multimedia psychoeducational interventions, 26 (96.29%) completed post-assessments. A high level of adherence (80.76%) and satisfaction (Mean=29.42; SD=4.18) with the online multimedia psychoeducational interventions was found. Compared with the control group, the patients who used online multimedia psychoeducational interventions reported greater resilience (Meanintervention=81.74; Meancontrol=72.86; adjusted t (46)=2.10; p=0.04; CI: 0.39 to 17.38; dppc2=0.83) and fewer perceived stress (Meanintervention=22.15; Meancontrol=29.45; adjusted t (46)=2.66; p=0.01; CI: -12.81 to -1.78; dppc2= - 0.77) after 2 weeks. Discussion: The findings of the present study provided a successful first attempt at implementing feasible online multimedia psychoeducational interventions to promote resilience and mitigate stress among the patients who were hospitalized due to infection with COVID-19. The present results could help mental health professionals to determine which psychological techniques should be emphasized to promote patients' resilience in the context of COVID-19 disease.