Incidence and Risk Factors of Long Covid in the Uk: A Single-Centre Observational Study

Abstract

IntroductionSince the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 global pandemic in early March 2020, over 153 million coronavirus cases and 3.2 million deaths were reported worldwide. 1 The effective and rapid roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine in the UK and other parts of the world has brought hope that the pandemic is coming to an end. 2,3 Unfortunately, the long-term devastating effects of COVID-19 are here to stay. There has been increasing attention recently about the longterm sequel of COVID-19 called 'Long COVID' or post COVID-19 syndrome. Long COVID or post COVID-19 syndrome has been defi ned as 'signs and symptoms that develop during or after an infection consistent with COVID-19, continue for more than 12 weeks and are not explained by an alternative diagnosis'. 4 The epidemiology, clinical characteristics, pathogenesis, and complications of patients with acute COVID-19 have been explicitly described, but the long-term consequences and predictors of the illness remain largely unclear.A recent study showed that multiple acute COVID-19 symptoms during the fi rst week of illness predicted long COVID. 5 Other studies have reported consequences of COVID-19 infection up to 6 months. 6,7 Thus, we conducted an observational study with the aim to describe the long COVID symptoms at 3, 6 and 9 months and to determine the risk factors predisposing the development of long COVID following patient hospital discharge. MethodsWe included all patients with confi rmed COVID-19 admitted to a district general hospital, in the UK, between 15 February 2020 and 31 July 2020. All patients tested positive on admission for SARS-CoV-2 on a reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction assay after a nasopharyngeal swab. Four of the authors contacted all patients via telephone after hospital discharge between 5 January 2021 and 22 January 2021. We carried out a cross-sectional survey of patients using a standardised questionnaire. Subsequently, we assessed patients' presence and severity of long COVID symptoms at 9 months after their hospital discharge following hospital admissions with acute COVID-19 illness. During the same telephone survey, all patients interviewed were asked to recollect their symptoms for long COVID at 3 and 6 months. Patients who did not answer our initial telephone calls were re-contacted at least three times. Patients who had diffi culty hearing, dementia, care home residents, and those unwilling to participate were excluded.Background Studies to evaluate long COVID symptoms and their risk factors are limited. We evaluated the presence of long COVID and its risk factors in patients discharged from a hospital with COVID-19 illness.Methods This observational study included 271 COVID-19 patients admitted between February and July 2020 in a hospital in the UK. The primary outcome measure was to assess the duration and severity of long COVID and its predictors at 3, 6 and 9 months. Logistic regression was performed to assess the potential risk factors for long COVID.Results Out of 89 patients interviewed, ...

Clinical features, therapeutic outcomes, and recovery period of long COVID

“…As shown in Table 1, sampling of participants in this analysis ensures the validity of this work without any potential problems regarding selection bias. Consistent with previous studies, our data revealed that fatigue and respiratory symptoms are the two leading complaints at almost the same level [27][28][29] . First, our data showed that long COVID has a dynamic nature of changeable manifestations throughout the clinical course in the majority of patients (Table 3), given the depressing impression that the clinical condition continuously improves and worsens over time, and the condition feels permanent.…”

“…As shown in Table 1, the sampling of participants in this analysis ensures the validity of this work without any potential problems regarding selection bias. Consistent with previous studies, our data revealed that fatigue and respiratory symptoms are the two leading complaints at almost the same level 36–38 …”

Letters to the Editor

“…They speculated that COVID-19 pneumonia in our study at the time of the hospital admission might not be a reliable predictor of long COVID. 1 They claimed that the recent study by Evans et al found no link between the severity of pneumonia and the long COVID symptoms at 6 months; however, mechanical ventilation, female sex and middle age were risk factors for long COVID. 2…”

Post-COVID-19 Syndrome Comprehensive Assessment: From Clinical Diagnosis to Imaging and Biochemical-Guided Diagnosis and Management

“…Table 2 shows a summary of useful investigation tools for patients with PC19S. A Bangladesh cohort study showed a persistence of PC19S symptoms at 9 months ranging from 16.1% to 50% [ 92 , 93 ]. The mean duration of PC19S symptoms was 21.8 weeks and the length of PC19S was projected with a structural equation based on age, gender, smoking and prior functional limitations [ 92 ].…”