Healthy outcomes of patients with COVID-19 two years after the infection: a prospective cohort study. Issue 1 (31st December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Dapeng; Liao, Xuejiao; Liu, Zhi; Ma, Zhenghua; Dong, Jingke; Zheng, Guoqin; Zi, Mei; Wang, Fang; He, Qing; Li, Guobao; Zhang, Zheng; Liu, Lei
• Is Part Of: Emerging microbes & infections. Volume 11:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 2680
• Page End: 2688
• Publication Date: 2022-12-31
• Subjects: COVID-19 -- SARS-CoV-2 -- long COVID -- follow-up -- risk factor; Medical microbiology -- Periodicals; Communicable diseases -- Periodicals; Infection -- Periodicals; 616.9041
• DOI: 10.1080/22221751.2022.2133639
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2222-1751

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The long-term effect of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been rarely known. This study aimed to investigate healthy outcomes of COVID-19 survivors up to 2 years after the infection. A total of 155 COVID-19 patients, who were discharged from Shenzhen Third People's Hospital from February 2020 to April 2020, were enrolled and followed up until March 4, 2022. COVID-19 survivors received questionnaires of long COVID symptoms and psychological symptoms, pulmonary function tests, chest computed tomography (CT) scans and routine laboratory tests. Two years after infection, 36.6% of patients had at least one symptom of long COVID. Vision impairment and fatigue were the most common symptom. 35.0% of participants still had at least one psychological symptom of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and sleep difficulties. Radiographic abnormalities were presented in 50.7% of patients, with the most common features of fibrosis-like lesions and residual ground-glass opacity. Diffuse dysfunction (24.0%) was the main abnormalities of pulmonary function tests. Most laboratory parameters returned to normal range, while persistent abnormalities in kidney and liver function test were observed in a subset of participants after discharge. Two years after COVID-19 infection, persistent symptoms of long COVID and psychological symptoms, as well as abnormalities in pulmonary function tests and CT, were still common in a subset of recovering individuals. These findings were limited by the lack of a healthy control group and pre-COVID assessments, which should be confirmed by further large-scale studies.