A cohort study of post-COVID-19 condition across the Beta, Delta, and Omicron waves in South Africa: 6-month follow-up of hospitalized and nonhospitalized participants

Objectives: The study aimed to describe the prevalence of and risk factors for post-COVID-19 condition (PCC). Methods: This was a prospective, longitudinal observational cohort study. Hospitalized and nonhospitalized adults were randomly selected to undergo telephone assessment at 1, 3, and 6 months. Participants were assessed using a standardized questionnaire for the evaluation of symptoms and health-related quality of life. We used negative binomial regression models to determine factors associated with the presence of >= 1 symptoms at 6 months. Results: A total of 46.7% of hospitalized and 18.5% of nonhospitalized participants experienced >= 1 symptoms at 6 months ( P <= 0.001). Among hospitalized people living with HIV, 40.4% had persistent symptoms compared with 47.1% among participants without HIV ( P = 0.108). The risk factors for PCC included older age, female sex, non-Black race, presence of a comorbidity, greater number of acute COVID-19 symptoms, hospitalization/COVID-19 severity, and wave period (lower risk of persistent symptoms for the Omicron compared with the Beta wave). There were no associations between self-reported vaccination status with persistent symptoms. Conclusion: The study revealed a high prevalence of persistent symptoms among South African participants at 6 months but decreased risk for PCC among participants infected during the Omicron BA.1 wave. These findings have serious implications for countries with resource-constrained health care systems. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )

Automated summary

The study aimed to describe the prevalence of and risk factors for post-COVID-19 condition (PCC). A total of 46.7% of hospitalized and 18.5% of nonhospitalized participants experienced >= 1 symptoms at 6 months. Risk factors for PCC included older age, female sex, non-Black race, presence of a comorbidity, greater number of acute COVID-19 symptoms, hospitalization/COVID-19 severity, and wave period.