The new study, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, tracked the recovery of more than 2,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients.A year after discharge, barely a quarter of patients reported feeling like their bodies had fully recovered from COVID-19, the results showed.
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The ongoing study tracks a large number of adults in the UK hospitalised with COVID-19 between March 2020 and April 2021. These individuals participated in two follow-up assessments after discharge (at five months and one year after discharge).
At follow-up assessments, subjects completed physiological and cognitive tests, provided blood samples, and filled out subjective questionnaires. At the five-month follow-up, only 26% reported feeling fully recovered from the throes of COVID-19, and at the one-year follow-up, only 29% said they had fully recovered.
Rachael Evans, one of the researchers who led the project, said: “In our study, there was limited recovery from five months to a year after hospitalization, which included symptoms, mental health, exercise capacity, organ damage and quality of life, which is critical for Shocked.”
The study identified several risk factors. These factors are said to increase the likelihood that patients will experience lasting health problems after being hospitalized for COVID-19. Female and obese subjects were more likely to report not feeling fully recovered after a year. The most common persistent symptoms reported were fatigue, muscle pain, slowing down, poor sleep and difficulty breathing.
The researchers were also able to divide those patients who experienced prolonged COVID into four groups based on the severity of their symptoms. These groups ranged from very severe physical and mental health impairment (20% of the long COVID group) to mild mental and physical health impairment (39% of the overall group).
Louise Wain, another researcher involved in the research project, said: “Our findings that persistent systemic inflammation — especially in those with very severe and moderate cognitive impairment — suggest that these groups may be anti-inflammatory. Strategies to respond. Consistent severity of physical and mental health impairments in long COVID patients highlights the need to not only closely integrate physical and mental health care in long COVID patients – including assessment and intervention, but also in the health care profession Knowledge transfer between personnel to improve patient care.”
The researchers made it clear that this group of patients did not include vaccinated subjects, so further work must track the long-term outcomes of those hospitalized with vaccine breakthrough infections. The data also covers the period prior to the emergence of the Omicron variant, so it is unclear whether these numbers apply to infection with the new variant of SARS-CoV-2.
It’s too early to extrapolate Omicron’s impact on long COVID globally, but researchers are starting to see long-term effects from earlier variants. A recent meta-analysis from the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health looked at data from 1.6 million COVID-19 patients, including 50 studies, and found that nearly half of all people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were within four months of initial diagnosis. Some persistent symptoms were later reported.
The meta-analysis found that 34% of non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients had persistent symptoms after four months. Fatigue is the most prominent persistent symptom.
Christopher Brightling, author of the new UK study, noted that the findings highlight that a large number of COVID-19 patients in 2020 and 2021 are suffering from a prolonged period of Covid-19. And no matter how many newer infections in the future will be linked to long COVID, there is already a huge population hit by this chronic disease.
Brightling said: “Our study highlights the urgent need for healthcare services to support this large and rapidly growing patient population with a substantial symptom burden, including decreased exercise capacity and a substantial decline in health-related quality of life one year after discharge. “Without effective treatment, long COVID may become a highly prevalent new long-term disease.”