Prevalence of post-acute coronavirus disease 2019 symptoms twelve months after hospitalization in participants retained in follow-up: analyses stratified by gender from a large prospective cohort

Objectives: Persistent post-acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms (PACSs) have been reported up to 6 months after hospital discharge. Herein we assessed the symptoms that persisted 12 months (M12) after admission for COVID-19 in the longitudinal prospective national French coro-navirus disease cohort.Methods: Hospitalized patients with a confirmed virological diagnosis of COVID-19 were enrolled. Follow-up was planned until M12 after admission. Associations between persistence of >= 3 PACSs at M12 and clinical characteristics at admission were assessed through logistic regression according to gender.Results: We focused on participants enrolled between 24 January 2020 and 15 July 2020, to allow M12 follow-up. The M12 data were available for 737 participants. Median age was 61 years, 475 (64%) were men and 242/647 (37%) were admitted to intensive care units during the acute phase. At M12, 27% (194/ 710) of the participants had >= 3 persistent PACS, mostly fatigue, dyspnoea and joint pain. Among those who had a professional occupation before the acute phase, 91 out of 339 (27%) were still on sick leave at M12. Presence of >= 3 persistent PACS was associated with female gender, both anxiety and depression, impaired health-related quality of life and Medical Muscle Research Council Scale < 57. Compared with men, women more often reported presence of >= 3 persistent PACSs (98/253, 39% vs. 96/457, 21%), depression and anxiety (18/152, 12% vs. 17/268, 6% and 33/156, 21% vs. 26/264, 10%, respectively), impaired physical health-related quality of life (76/141, 54% vs. 120/261, 46%). Women had less often returned to work than men (77/116, 66% vs. 171/223, 77%).Conclusions: One fourth of the individuals admitted to hospital for COVID-19 still had >= 3 persistent PACSs at M12 post-discharge. Women reported more often >= 3 persistent PACSs, suffered more from anxiety and depression and had less often returned to work than men.(c) 2022 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study assessed the symptoms that persisted 12 months after admission for COVID-19 and found that approximately 27% of patients still had >= 3 persistent symptoms, especially fatigue, dyspnea, and joint pain. Women were more likely to experience persistent symptoms, as well as suffer from anxiety and depression, and were less likely to return to work compared to men.