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1/7/21

Long-Term Patient-Centred Follow-up in a Prospective Cohort of Patients with COVID-19

Righi, Elda; Mirandola, Massimo; Mazzaferri, Fulvia; Razzaboni, Elisa; Zaffagnini, Amina; Erbogasto, Anna; Dalla Vecchia, Ilaria; Auerbach, Nina; Ivaldi, Federico; Mongardi, Maria; Minuz, Pietro; Milella, Michele; Mehrabi, Sara; Olivieri, Oliviero; Girelli, Domenico; Polati, Enrico; Micheletto, Claudio; Tacconelli, Evelina

Infectious Diseases and Therapy volume 10, pages1579–1590 (2021)

Introduction To better define COVID-19 long-term impact we prospectively analysed patient-centred outcomes, including general health and symptom duration. Methods Barthel index (BI), St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire adapted to patients with COVID-19 (aSGRQ) and WHO Clinical Progression Scale (CPS) were measured at enrolment and at 6 weeks from the onset of symptoms. Persistence of most frequently reported symptoms was assessed at 6 weeks and, among symptomatic patients, at 12 weeks from the onset of symptoms. Predictors of impaired general health over time were identified using an ordinal multilevel multivariate model. Results A total of 448 patients (55% men, median age 56 years) were enrolled. WHO-CPS showed mild, moderate and severe disease in 48%, 42% and 10% of patients at admission and mild disease in all patients at follow-up, respectively. BI and aSGRQ were normal in 96% and 93% patients before COVID-19 but only in 47% and 16% at COVID-19 diagnosis and in 87% and 65% at 6-week follow-up. Male gender was identified by all three assessments as a predictor of impaired general health (BI, OR 2.14, p < 0.0001; aSGRQ, OR 0.53, p = 0.003; WHO-CPS, OR 1.56, p = 0.01). Other predictors included age, ICU admission and comorbidities (e.g. cardiovascular disease and cancer) for BI, hospital admission for aSGRQ, age and presence of comorbidities for WHO-CPS. At 6- and 12-week follow-up, 39% and 20% of patients, respectively, were still reporting symptoms. Fatigue and breathlessness were the most frequently reported symptoms. Conclusions Long-term follow-up facilitates the monitoring of health impairment and symptom persistence and can contribute to plan tailored interventions.



http://dx.doi.org/10.1007%2Fs40121-021-00461-3

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