Abstract:
Background: Post-acute COVID-19 syndrome (PACS) is an important healthcare burden. We examined persistent symptoms in COVID-19 patients at least four weeks after the onset of infection, participants’ return to pre-COVID-19 health status and associated risk factors.
Methods: Cross-sectional study was conducted (December 2020 to January 2021). A validated online questionnaire was sent to randomly selected individuals aged more than 14 years from a total of 1397,386 people confirmed to have COVID-19 at least 4 weeks prior to the start of this survey. This sample was drawn from the Saudi ministry of health COVID-19 testing registry system.
Results: Out of the 9507 COVID-19 patients who responded to the survey, 5946 (62.5%) of them adequately completed it. 2895 patients (48.7%) were aged 35-44 years, 64.4% were males, and 91.5% were Middle Eastern or North African. 79.4% experienced unresolved symptoms for at least 4 weeks after the disease onset. 9.3% were hospitalized with 42.7% visiting healthcare facility after discharge and 14.3% requiring readmission. The rates of main reported persistent symptoms in descending order were fatigue 53.5%, muscle and body ache 38.2%, loss of smell 35.0%, joint pain 30.5%, and loss of taste 29.1%. There was moderate correlation between the number of symptoms at the onset and post-four weeks of COVID-19 infection. Female sex, pre-existing comorbidities, increased number of baseline symptoms, longer hospital-stay, and hospital readmission were predictors of delayed return to baseline health state (p < 0.05).
Conclusion: The symptoms of PACS are prevalent after contracting COVID-19 disease. Several risk factors could predict delayed return to baseline health state.
Source: Tleyjeh IM, Kashour T, Riaz M, Amer SA, AlSwaidan N, Almutairi L, Halwani R, Assiri A. Persistent COVID-19 symptoms at least one month after diagnosis: A national survey. J Infect Public Health. 2022 May;15(5):578-585. doi: 10.1016/j.jiph.2022.04.006. Epub 2022 Apr 20. PMID: 35477145; PMCID: PMC9020835. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9020835/ (Full text)