Abstract
Introduction
Most of the patients completely recovered after COVID-19 infection. However, a substantial proportion of patients infected with COVID-19 continue to have symptoms long past the time they recovered from the initial disease. Understanding the burden of post-COVID-19 symptoms is vital in planning Post COVID care. We assessed the burden of persistent post-COVID-19 symptoms and functional status after 12-14 weeks among those who recovered from COVID-19.
Method
We obtained the list of COVID-19-positive cases between February 25 and March 09, 2021, from the COVID-19 surveillance unit in Chennai, India. The assessment was done during June 11-20, 2021. We tele-consulted all these patients aged >18 years during the 12-14 post-recovery period of COVID-19. We collected data from 1241 patients with persistent symptoms and also evaluated the functional status of daily living using a post-COVID-19 functional scale (PCFS).
Results
Of 1241, 1001(81%) responded. Almost one in four (24%) respondents reported at least one of the symptoms as persistent and Weight loss (40%), Hair loss (29%), and Fatigue/Tiredness (26%) were the most commonly reported symptoms. Based on the PCFS scale, 24(2%) reported that their usual activities were reduced due to persistent symptoms and 3(0.3%) participants reported that their functional status was affected drastically compared to the period of pre-COVID diagnosis.
Conclusions
Severe limitations of the functional status were significantly higher among those with comorbidity than those who did not. Weakness, malaise, fatigue, brain fog, and breathlessness were the most commonly reported long COVID-19 symptoms in high-income countries. On the other hand, weight loss, hair loss, and excessive tiredness were the most commonly reported symptoms in our setting. Our study also found that hospitalization for severe COVID-19 was the predictor for long COVID-19 which is consistent with the findings from other studies.
Reference
Rubeshkumar P et al., 2022, J Infect., doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2021.12.019.
A Klok Frederikus et al., 2020, Eur Respir J., doi: 10.1183/13993003.01494-2020.