Long Term Health Problems in Hospitalized COVID-19 Survivors

Discharged patients underwent detailed health checks at six and 12 months (taken from the date they first experienced symptoms of COVID-19) to assess any ongoing symptoms and their health-related quality of life. These included face-to-face questionnaires, physical examinations, lab tests, and a six-minute walking test to gauge patients’ endurance levels.

Fatigue or muscle weakness was the most commonly reported symptom with around half of patients experiencing this at six months. Almost one third of patients reported experiencing shortness of breath at 12 months, which was slightly higher than at six months.

This was more prevalent in patients who had been the most severely ill and had been on a ventilator during their time in a hospital compared to those who had not required oxygen treatment.

Compared with men, women were 1.4 times more likely to report fatigue or muscle weakness, twice as likely to report anxiety or depression, and almost three times as likely to have lung diffusion impairment after 12 months.

People who had been treated with corticosteroids during the acute phase of their illness with COVID-19 were 1.5 times as likely to experience fatigue or muscle weakness after 12 months, compared to those who had not been treated with corticosteroids during their illness.

All of the symptoms recorded in the study questionnaire were more prevalent in people who had COVID-19, compared with people from the wider community who had not had COVID-19.

Researchers noted that their study was focused on a single hospital and so patient outcomes may not be generalizable to other settings.

Additionally, the study included only a small number of patients who had been admitted to intensive care and findings relating to the most critically ill patients should be interpreted with caution.

The scientific and medical communities must collaborate to explore the mechanism and pathogenesis of long COVID. Estimating the global and regional disease burdens will delineate who is most at risk, helps to understand how vaccines might affect the condition, and find effective treatments via randomized controlled trials.

Health-care providers must also acknowledge and validate the toll of the persistent symptoms of long COVID on patients, and health systems need to be prepared to meet individualised, patient-oriented goals, with an appropriately trained workforce involving physical, cognitive, social, and occupational elements.

Source: Medindia