Persistent symptoms, quality of life, and risk factors in long COVID: a cross-sectional study of hospitalized patients in Brazil

Objectives: COVID-19 has been associated with long-term consequences to patient wellness and quality of life. Data on post-COVID-19 conditions are scarce in developing countries. This study aimed to investigate long COVID in a cohort of hospitalized patients in Brazil.Methods: Surviving patients discharged from the hospital between July 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021 were assessed between 2 and 12 months after acute onset of COVID-19. The outcomes were the prevalence of persistent symptoms, risk factors associated with long COVID, and quality of life as assessed by the EuroQol 5D-3L questionnaire.Results: Of 439 participants, most (84%) reported at least one long COVID symptom, at a median of 138 days (interquartile range [IQR] 90-201) after disease onset. Fatigue (63.1%), dyspnea (53.7%), arthralgia (56.1%), and depression/anxiety (55.1%) were the most prevalent symptoms. In multivariate analysis, dys-geusia (odds ratio [OR] 2.0, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.18-3.44, P < 0.001) and intensive care unit (ICU) admission (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.19-6.56, P = 0.03) were independently associated with long COVID. Fifty per-cent of patients reported a worsened clinical condition and quality of life.Conclusion: Long-term outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a low-to middle-income country were rel-evant. Fatigue was the most common persistent symptom. ICU admission was an independent factor as-sociated with long COVID. Dysgeusia could be a potential predictor of long COVID.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )

Automated summary

The study investigated long-term consequences of COVID-19 in a cohort of hospitalized patients in Brazil, finding that most patients had at least one long COVID symptom, with fatigue being the most common. ICU admission was associated with long COVID.