Long-term Health Implications of Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Prospective Study on Post-coronavirus Disease 2019 Symptoms.

Abstract

Context: Patients recovering from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection continue to have some persistent symptoms or develop new symptoms, resulting in impairment of everyday activities beyond the initial acute period. The current study was undertaken to understand the long term health implications of covid 19 and to analyse the correlation of post covid symptoms with the severity of infection and inflammatory markers at the time of hospitalisation.

Aims: (1) To estimate the prevalence of post covid symptoms at the end of 1 month,3 months and 12 months after discharge, (2) To correlate post covid symptoms with the severity of infection and inflammatory markers at the time of hospitalisation.

Settings and design: The study design was a cross-sectional study.

Subjects and methods: A prospective observational study was done on 150 COVID-19 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction-positive patients aged 18 years and above recovering from acute infection discharged from Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre. All the patients were followed up for 1 year, during which telephonic interviews were conducted, and a systematic enquiry was made regarding post-COVID-19 symptoms.

Statistical analysis used: Data were entered in MS Excel and analyzed in SPSS V25. Descriptive statistics are represented with percentages, mean with standard deviation, or median with interquartile range depending on the nature of the data. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was applied to find normality. The Chi-square test, Independent t-test, or Mann-Whitney U-test were calculated depending on normality; P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: A total of 150 COVID-19-positive patients discharged from the hospital were included in the study. Sixty-seven percent of patients had symptoms at 1 month, 39% at 3 months, and 31% of patients persisted to have symptoms at 1 year. The most common symptoms at 1 year were fatigue (5%), breathlessness (5%), and insomnia (5%). No statistically significant correlation was found with the severity of infection, inflammatory markers, and other variables.

Conclusions: Approximately one-third of patients who recover from acute COVID-19 infection may continue to have post-COVID-19 symptoms at 1 year after infection. Fatigue is the most common post-COVID-19 symptom. Post-COVID-19 symptoms can affect COVID-19 survivors regardless of the severity of the infection.