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Abstract
Objective
Although complications and clinical symptoms of COVID-19 have been elucidated, the
prevalence of long-term sequelae of COVID-19 is less clear in previously hospitalized
COVID-19 patients. This review and meta-analysis present the occurrence of different
symptoms up to 1 year of follow-up for previously hospitalized patients.
Methods
We performed a systematic review from PubMed and Web of Science using keywords such
as “COVID-19”, “SARS-CoV-2”, “sequelae”, “long-term effect” and included studies with
at least 3-month of follow-up. Meta-analyses using random-effects models were performed
to estimate the pooled prevalence for different sequelae. Subgroup analyses were conducted
by different follow-up time, regions, age and ICU admission.
Results
72 articles were included in the meta-analyses after screening 11,620 articles, identifying
a total of 167 sequelae related to COVID-19 from 88,769 patients. Commonly reported
sequelae included fatigue (27.5%, 95% CI 22.4–33.3%, range 1.5–84.9%), somnipathy
(20.1%, 95% CI 14.7–26.9%, range 1.2–64.8%), anxiety (18.0%, 95% CI 13.8–23.1%, range
0.6–47.8%), dyspnea (15.5%, 95% CI 11.3–20.9%, range 0.8–58.4%), PTSD (14.6%, 95%
CI 11.3–18.7%, range 1.2–32.0%), hypomnesia (13.4%, 95% CI 8.4–20.7%, range 0.6–53.8%),
arthralgia (12.9%, 95% CI 8.4–19.2%, range 0.0–47.8%), depression (12.7%, 95% CI 9.3–17.2%,
range 0.6–37.5%), alopecia (11.2%, 95% CI 6.9–17.6%, range 0.0–47.0%) over 3–13.2 months
of follow-up. The prevalence of most symptoms reduced after > 9 months of follow-up,
but fatigue and somnipathy persisted in 26.2% and 15.1%, respectively, of the patients
over a year. COVID-19 patients from Asia reported a lower prevalence than those from
other regions.
Conclusions
This review identified a wide spectrum of COVID-19 sequelae in previously hospitalized
COVID-19 patients, with some symptoms persisting up to 1 year. Management and rehabilitation
strategies targeting these symptoms may improve quality of life of recovered patients.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s15010-022-01862-3.
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are essential to summarize evidence relating to efficacy and safety of health care interventions accurately and reliably. The clarity and transparency of these reports, however, is not optimal. Poor reporting of systematic reviews diminishes their value to clinicians, policy makers, and other users. Since the development of the QUOROM (QUality Of Reporting Of Meta-analysis) Statement--a reporting guideline published in 1999--there have been several conceptual, methodological, and practical advances regarding the conduct and reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Also, reviews of published systematic reviews have found that key information about these studies is often poorly reported. Realizing these issues, an international group that included experienced authors and methodologists developed PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) as an evolution of the original QUOROM guideline for systematic reviews and meta-analyses of evaluations of health care interventions. The PRISMA Statement consists of a 27-item checklist and a four-phase flow diagram. The checklist includes items deemed essential for transparent reporting of a systematic review. In this Explanation and Elaboration document, we explain the meaning and rationale for each checklist item. For each item, we include an example of good reporting and, where possible, references to relevant empirical studies and methodological literature. The PRISMA Statement, this document, and the associated Web site (http://www.prisma-statement.org/) should be helpful resources to improve reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, due to the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has caused a worldwide sudden and substantial increase in hospitalizations for pneumonia with multiorgan disease. This review discusses current evidence regarding the pathophysiology, transmission, diagnosis, and management of COVID-19.
Background The long-term health consequences of COVID-19 remain largely unclear. The aim of this study was to describe the long-term health consequences of patients with COVID-19 who have been discharged from hospital and investigate the associated risk factors, in particular disease severity. Methods We did an ambidirectional cohort study of patients with confirmed COVID-19 who had been discharged from Jin Yin-tan Hospital (Wuhan, China) between Jan 7, 2020, and May 29, 2020. Patients who died before follow-up, patients for whom follow-up would be difficult because of psychotic disorders, dementia, or re-admission to hospital, those who were unable to move freely due to concomitant osteoarthropathy or immobile before or after discharge due to diseases such as stroke or pulmonary embolism, those who declined to participate, those who could not be contacted, and those living outside of Wuhan or in nursing or welfare homes were all excluded. All patients were interviewed with a series of questionnaires for evaluation of symptoms and health-related quality of life, underwent physical examinations and a 6-min walking test, and received blood tests. A stratified sampling procedure was used to sample patients according to their highest seven-category scale during their hospital stay as 3, 4, and 5–6, to receive pulmonary function test, high resolution CT of the chest, and ultrasonography. Enrolled patients who had participated in the Lopinavir Trial for Suppression of SARS-CoV-2 in China received severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 antibody tests. Multivariable adjusted linear or logistic regression models were used to evaluate the association between disease severity and long-term health consequences. Findings In total, 1733 of 2469 discharged patients with COVID-19 were enrolled after 736 were excluded. Patients had a median age of 57·0 (IQR 47·0–65·0) years and 897 (52%) were men. The follow-up study was done from June 16, to Sept 3, 2020, and the median follow-up time after symptom onset was 186·0 (175·0–199·0) days. Fatigue or muscle weakness (63%, 1038 of 1655) and sleep difficulties (26%, 437 of 1655) were the most common symptoms. Anxiety or depression was reported among 23% (367 of 1617) of patients. The proportions of median 6-min walking distance less than the lower limit of the normal range were 24% for those at severity scale 3, 22% for severity scale 4, and 29% for severity scale 5–6. The corresponding proportions of patients with diffusion impairment were 22% for severity scale 3, 29% for scale 4, and 56% for scale 5–6, and median CT scores were 3·0 (IQR 2·0–5·0) for severity scale 3, 4·0 (3·0–5·0) for scale 4, and 5·0 (4·0–6·0) for scale 5–6. After multivariable adjustment, patients showed an odds ratio (OR) 1·61 (95% CI 0·80–3·25) for scale 4 versus scale 3 and 4·60 (1·85–11·48) for scale 5–6 versus scale 3 for diffusion impairment; OR 0·88 (0·66–1·17) for scale 4 versus scale 3 and OR 1·77 (1·05–2·97) for scale 5–6 versus scale 3 for anxiety or depression, and OR 0·74 (0·58–0·96) for scale 4 versus scale 3 and 2·69 (1·46–4·96) for scale 5–6 versus scale 3 for fatigue or muscle weakness. Of 94 patients with blood antibodies tested at follow-up, the seropositivity (96·2% vs 58·5%) and median titres (19·0 vs 10·0) of the neutralising antibodies were significantly lower compared with at the acute phase. 107 of 822 participants without acute kidney injury and with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) 90 mL/min per 1·73 m2 or more at acute phase had eGFR less than 90 mL/min per 1·73 m2 at follow-up. Interpretation At 6 months after acute infection, COVID-19 survivors were mainly troubled with fatigue or muscle weakness, sleep difficulties, and anxiety or depression. Patients who were more severely ill during their hospital stay had more severe impaired pulmonary diffusion capacities and abnormal chest imaging manifestations, and are the main target population for intervention of long-term recovery. Funding National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Major Projects of National Science and Technology on New Drug Creation and Development of Pulmonary Tuberculosis, and Peking Union Medical College Foundation.
Publisher:
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
(Berlin/Heidelberg
)
ISSN
(Print):
0300-8126
ISSN
(Electronic):
1439-0973
Publication date
(Electronic):
24
June
2022
Pages: 1-43
Affiliations
[1
]GRID grid.194645.b, ISNI 0000000121742757, School of Public Health, , The University of Hong Kong, ; Hong Kong, China
[2
]GRID grid.194645.b, ISNI 0000000121742757, Department of Medicine, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, , The University of Hong Kong, ; Hong Kong, China
[3
]Laboratory of Data Discovery for Health Limited, Hong Kong Science Park, Hong Kong,
China
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