Post-COVID-19 syndrome in a cohort of hospitalized COVID-19 patients

Y. Bildirici, S. Metintas, A. Ucan, G. Ak, S. Eker Guvenc, M. Metintas

Department of Pediatrics, Eskisehir City Hospital, Eskisehir, Turkey. yasar.bildirici@saglik.gov.tr

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• Infectious Diseases

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to investigate the frequency of post-COVID-19 syndrome and associated factors in patients who visited the post-COVID-19 outpatient clinic after hospital discharge in the first, third, and sixth months of the first year of the pandemic.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study was a clinical cohort study of patients hospitalized due to COVID-19. The modified British Medical Research Council (mMRC) Dyspnea Scale, the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), the Mini Nutritional Assessment short-form (MNA-SF), and the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) were evaluated using a standard form and symptom interview by a specialist physician.

RESULTS: Of the 254 patients in the study group, 50.4% were women, and their ages ranged from 18 to 85 years, with a mean (SD) of 55.3±11.5. Post-COVID-19 syndrome was diagnosed in 57.5% of the patients. It was found that the frequency of some of the symptoms persisted and increased in the first month, decreased significantly in the third month, and did not differ between the third and sixth months. Body mass index (BMI), MNA-SF, MUST, and CFS improved over time. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the risk of the post-COVID-19 syndrome was 1.91- and 1.40-fold higher in patients with severe COVID-19 and patients with more symptoms in the first month, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 is not a short-term infectious disease but an infectious disease with long-term effects. Cohorts of patients who are still symptomatic at the end of the first month after severe COVID-19 should be followed up for a longer period and their clinical outcomes monitored.

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