Comprehensive analysis of long COVID in a Japanese nationwide prospective cohort study

Hideki Terai ,Jin Nakahara ,Masanori Kaji ,Kotaro Sasahara ,Soichiro Ueda ,Kazumi Nishio ,Toshiki Ebisudani ,Saki Tomiyasu ,Ryo Takemura ,Yoko Ibuka ,Kazuto Hagimura ,Naoki Miyao,Morio Nakamura ,Tatsuya Kusumoto ,Masahiko Okada ,Sei Harada ,Takashi Ishiguro ,Takao Mochimaru ,Naoki Miyazaki ,Kengo Otsuka,Noriyuki Ishida ,Takanori Asakura ,Hidefumi Koh ,Masahiro Kondo ,Akira Umeda ,Nobuhiro Kodama ,Akiko Fujiwara ,Shiro Otake ,Takanori Fujita ,Satoshi Okamori ,Keita Masuzawa ,Miyuki Nishie ,Satoshi Sakamoto ,Shuko Mashimo ,Tetsuya Shiomi ,Tsuguya Fukui ,Yasushi Makino ,Sohei Nakayama ,Kaoru Ogawa ,Tôru Hirano ,Kazuya Miyagawa ,Takashi Yoshiyama ,Keitaro Fukuda ,Masayuki Amagai ,Masaru Mimura ,Katsunori Masaki ,Hitoshi Sasano ,Mayuko Watase ,Takehiko Ohba ,Keigo Kobayashi ,Toshiki Iwasaki ,Nao Omori ,Junko Kagyo ,Norihiro Harada ,Naoki Hasegawa ,Gaku Hiruma ,Shoji Suzuki ,Eisuke Shimizu ,Takenori Oakada ,Daisuke Arai ,Hiroki Kabata ,Shinnosuke Ikemura ,Hiromu Tanaka ,Takashi Shimada ,Yasunori Sato ,Ryusei Kimura ,Saeko Takahashi ,Makoto Ishii ,Toshiro Sato ,Rei Goto ,Hatsuyo Takaoka ,Yukiko Nakajima ,Shingo Maeda ,Kensuke Nakagawara ,Lisa Shigematsu ,Hirofumi Kamata ,Masaki Okamoto ,Rie Hagiwara ,Yukiko Nakano ,Toru Takebayashi ,Shogyoku Bun ,Taisuke Isosno ,Emiko Matsuyama ,Takunori Ogawa ,Kazuma Yagi ,Shuhei Azekawa ,Kazuhiro Minami ,Yuko Kitagawa ,Takae Tanosaki ,Akifumi Mitsuishi ,Yohei Funatsu ,Shinichi Nakayama ,Naota Kuwahara ,Masayoshi Miyawaki ,Naoto Minematsu ,Ryosuke Satomi ,Yoji Nagasaki ,Mizuha Haraguchi ,Kazuno Negishi ,Shigeto Shimmura ,Jun Miyata ,Koichi Sayama ,Fumitake Saito ,Masato Asaoka ,Ho Namkoong ,Daisuke Ito ,Tetsuo Tani ,Yoshiki Ishibashi ,Shotaro Chubachi ,Kaori Sakurai ,Hiroyuki Kokuto ,Yuto Akiyama ,Ayaka Saito ,Ichiro Kawada ,Hajime Tabuchi ,Kazuo Tsubota ,Tatsuya Kaido ,Shuichi Yoshida ,Fumimaro Ito ,Taro Shinozaki ,Takashi Inoue ,Hisato Shimada ,Sho Kanzaki ,Ho Lee ,Ichiro Nakachi ,Toshio Odani ,Reina Hayashi ,Ayano Oashi ,Kengo Nagashima ,Kota Ishioka ,Atsuho Morita ,Ai Goto ,Kyoko Shimamoto ,Momoko Kurihara ,Yu Kusaka ,Keiko Ohgino ,Misato Irie ,Hiroki Tateno ,Rie Baba ,Keeya Sunata ,Tadashi Manabe ,Kai Sugihara ,Takahiro Fukushima ,Yoshitaka Oyamada ,Takanori Kanai ,Jun Yamagami ,Hiroyuki Yasuda ,Yusuke Suzuki ,Koichi Fukunaga

doi:10.1016/j.resinv.2023.08.008

Abstract

BackgroundSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread rapidly since 2019, and the number of reports regarding long COVID has increased. Although the distribution of long COVID depends on patient characteristics, epidemiological data on Japanese patients are limited. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the distribution of long COVID in Japanese patients. This study is the first nationwide Japanese prospective cohort study on long COVID. MethodsThis multicenter, prospective cohort study enrolled hospitalized COVID-19 patients aged ≥18 years at 26 Japanese medical institutions. In total, 1200 patients were enrolled. Clinical information and patient-reported outcomes were collected from medical records, paper questionnaires, and smartphone applications. ResultsWe collected data from 1066 cases with both medical records and patient-reported outcomes. The proportion of patients with at least one symptom decreased chronologically from 93.9% (947/1009) during hospitalization to 46.3% (433/935), 40.5% (350/865), and 33.0% (239/724) at 3, 6, and 12 months, respectively. Patients with at least one long COVID symptom showed lower quality of life and scored higher on assessments for depression, anxiety, and fear of COVID-19. Female sex, middle age (41–64 years), oxygen requirement, and critical condition during hospitalization were risk factors for long COVID. ConclusionsThis study elucidated the symptom distribution and risks of long COVID in the Japanese population. This study provides reference data for future studies of long COVID in Japan.

Full Text