50% of COVID patients had at least one symptom even a year later: Study
A recent study has found that almost half of patients hospitalised due to COVID experienced at least one symptom of the disease even after 12 months post-infection.
The study published in Lancet journal on Friday (August 27) was based on 1,276 patients from China’s Wuhan. It said while shortness of breath and lung impairments were symptoms that lasted longer, one in three patients, especially critical cases, experienced them.
However, most of the symptoms in hospitalised patients are resolved within 12 months of recovery, the study said.
The hospitalised patients were also found to be less healthy than those who had not been infected, the study found, hinting at a direct correlation between good health and immunity against COVID-19.
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“While most had made a good recovery, health problems persisted in some patients, especially those who had been critically ill during their hospital stay,” researcher Bin Cao from the National Center for Respiratory Medicine, China-Japan Friendship Hospital was quoted as saying in a statement.
“Our findings suggest that recovery for some patients will take longer than one year, and this should be taken into account when planning delivery of services post-pandemic,” he added.
The research team in an earlier survey had found that around three-fourth of 1,733 hospitalised COVID patients had persistent symptoms even six months after being infected.
The research team had followed up on 1,276 of the 1,733 COVID survivors for their latest study.
The 1,276 individuals had been discharged from hospital between January 7 and May 29 last year and the research team examined them at six and 12 months from the date of their first experiencing of symptoms.
During the study, it was found that most of the symptoms wore off over time including among those who experienced severe infection initially. And while 68 per cent of the patients still experienced at least one symptom after six months, the percentage fell to 49 per cent at 12 months.
The most common symptoms reported by patients by the sixth month were fatigue or muscle weakness; the same, however, reduced to one in five patients after 12 months, the study said.
A third of the study’s participants experienced shortness of breath at 12 months, which was higher than the 30 per cent of patients who reported the same at six months.
At least 353 of the patients took a chest CT scan at the sixth-month and almost half of them were reported with lung abnormalities. Only 118 patients showed up for the scan at the 12th month. While a substantial number of patients showed a decline in lung abnormalities, the symptom was still persistent in some patients, particularly those who had been severely-affected.
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The study said women reported fatigue 1.4 times more than men and anxiety or depression twice than men at 12 months. They also complained of lung impairment three times more than men during the same time period.
The authors of the study said the findings would help them get a clearer understanding of COVID symptoms and their persistence after recovery.
The scientists, however, cautioned that their study was based on cases from a single hospital, taking into account a small sample size of patients admitted to the ICU. They have said the findings on the most critically-ill patients should be interpreted with caution.
