The presence of symptoms within 6 months after COVID-19: a single-center longitudinal study

BACKGROUND: Characterizing the post-COVID health conditions is helpful to direct patients to appropriate healthcare. AIMS: To describe the presence of symptoms in COVID-19 patients within 6 months after diagnosis and to investigate the associated factors in terms of reporting symptoms. METHODS: Data of DEU-COVIMER (a telephone interview-based COVID-19 follow-up center established in a tertiary care hospital) was analyzed for SARS-CoV-2 RNA positive participants aged ≥ 18 years from November 1st, 2020, to May 31st, 2021. Symptom frequencies were stratified by demographic and clinical characteristics at one, three, and 6 months after diagnosis. With the patients who had symptoms at baseline, generalized estimating equations were applied to identify the factors associated with reporting of symptoms. RESULTS: A total of 5610 patients agreed to participate in the study. Symptom frequency was 37.2%, 21.8%, and 18.2% for the first, third, and sixth months. Tiredness/fatigue, muscle or body aches, and dyspnea/difficulty breathing were the most common symptoms in all time frames. In multivariate analysis, older age, female gender (odds ratio OR 1.74, 95% confidence interval 1.57–1.93), bad economic status (OR 1.37, 1.14–1.65), current smoking (OR 1.15, 1.02–1.29), being fully vaccinated before COVID-19 (OR 0.53, 0.40–0.72), having more health conditions (≥ 3 conditions, OR 1.78, 1.33–2.37), having more symptoms (> 5 symptoms, OR 2.47, 2.19–2.78), and hospitalization (intensive care unit, OR 2.18, 1.51–3.14) were associated with reporting of symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: This study identifies risk factors for patients who experience post-COVID-19 symptoms. Healthcare providers should appropriately allocate resources prioritizing the patients who would benefit from post-COVID rehabilitation.