Post-COVID-19 Symptom Burden: What is Long-COVID and How Should We Manage It?

Sykes, Dominic L.; Holdsworth, Luke; Jawad, Nadia; Gunasekera, Pumali; Morice, Alyn H.; Crooks, Michael G.

doi:10.1007/s00408-021-00423-z

Post-COVID-19 Symptom Burden: What is Long-COVID and How Should We Manage It?

Sykes, Dominic L.; Holdsworth, Luke; Jawad, Nadia; Gunasekera, Pumali; Morice, Alyn H.; Crooks, Michael G.

Authors

Dominic L. Sykes

Luke Holdsworth

Nadia Jawad

Pumali Gunasekera

Professor Alyn Morice A.H.Morice@hull.ac.uk
Foundation Chair and Professor of Respiratory Medicine

Prof Michael Crooks m.g.crooks@hull.ac.uk
Professor of Respiratory Medicine

Abstract

© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature. The enduring impact of COVID-19 on patients has been examined in recent studies, leading to the description of Long-COVID. We report the lasting symptom burden of COVID-19 patients from the first wave of the pandemic. All patients with COVID-19 pneumonia discharged from a large teaching hospital trust were offered follow-up. We assessed symptom burden at follow-up using a standardised data collection technique during virtual outpatient clinic appointments. Eighty-six percent of patients reported at least one residual symptom at follow-up. No patients had persistent radiographic abnormalities. The presence of symptoms at follow-up was not associated with the severity of the acute COVID-19 illness. Females were significantly more likely to report residual symptoms including anxiety (p = 0.001), fatigue (p = 0.004), and myalgia (p = 0.022). The presence of long-lasting symptoms is common in COVID-19 patients. We suggest that the phenomenon of Long-COVID may not be directly attributable to the effect of SARS-CoV-2, and believe the biopsychosocial effects of COVID-19 may play a greater role in its aetiology.

Citation

Sykes, D. L., Holdsworth, L., Jawad, N., Gunasekera, P., Morice, A. H., & Crooks, M. G. (2021). Post-COVID-19 Symptom Burden: What is Long-COVID and How Should We Manage It?. Lung, 199(2), 113-119. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00408-021-00423-z

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jan 27, 2021
Online Publication Date	Feb 11, 2021
Publication Date	2021-04
Deposit Date	May 10, 2022
Journal	Lung
Print ISSN	0341-2040
Publisher	Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	199
Issue	2
Pages	113-119
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1007/s00408-021-00423-z
Keywords	Long-COVID; COVID-19; Symptom burden
Public URL	https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3732833