An Observational Study on Health Related Quality of Life and Persistent Symptoms in COVID-19 Patients After Hospitalization at Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Gachibowli

Abstract

Aim: The study aims to determine persistent symptoms and effects of COVID-19 infection on quality of life at one and three months after acute phase of the disease in mild, moderate, and severe cases.Methods: The prospective observational study was conducted among patients with confirmed COVID-19 who had been treated and discharged after hospitalization from February 2021 to June 2021. All the patients were interviewed at 1-month and 3-months post discharge with pre-structured questionnaires to assess the symptoms and health-related quality of life. The quality of life was assessed using EQ-5D-3L and EQ-VAS.Results: In total out of 479 discharged patients, 388 patients of COVID-19 were included. The median age of patients was 48 years, with 62.6% male and 37.4% female patients. The most common presenting symptom was fever (69.8%) and comorbidity was hypertension (35%). EQ-5D-3L showed that the problems reported at 3-month follow-up were significantly less when compared to 1-month follow-up (ppp=0.007). Age, gender, comorbidities, duration of steroid use, oxygen and/or ventilaton support, hospital stay, day of illness and symptoms at admission were correlated with QOL. Age, gender, comorbidities were also correlated with persistent symptoms.Conclusion: The study results demonstrate improvement in quality of life and resolution of symptoms after 3 months post COVID-19 infection when compared to follow-up at 1-month. Funding Information: None.Declaration of Interests: None.Ethics Approval Statement: The study was approved by the Institutional Scientific Research Committee of Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences And Research, Gachibowli. Informed consent was obtained from all the patients in their own native language before the initiation of the study.