Healthy outcomes of patients with COVID-19 two years after the infection: a prospective cohort study

Li，Dapeng1,4; Liao，Xuejiao1; Liu，Zhi1; Ma，Zhenghua1; Dong，Jingke1; Zheng，Guoqin1; Zi，Mei1; Wang，Fang1; He，Qing1; Li，Guobao1; Zhang，Zheng1,2,3; Liu，Lei1,2

2022

10.1080/22221751.2022.2133639

Emerging Microbes and Infections   Impact Factor & Quartile

2222-1751

The long-term effect of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been rarely known. This study aimed to investigate healthy outcomes of COVID-19 survivors up to 2 years after the infection. A total of 155 COVID-19 patients, who were discharged from Shenzhen Third People's Hospital from February 2020 to April 2020, were enrolled and followed up until March 4, 2022. COVID-19 survivors received questionnaires of long COVID symptoms and psychological symptoms, pulmonary function tests, chest computed tomography (CT) scans and routine laboratory tests. Two years after infection, 36.6% of patients had at least one symptom of long COVID. Vision impairment and fatigue were the most common symptom. 35.0% of participants still had at least one psychological symptom of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and sleep difficulties. Radiographic abnormalities were presented in 50.7% of patients, with the most common features of fibrosis-like lesions and residual ground-glass opacity. Diffuse dysfunction (24.0%) was the main abnormalities of pulmonary function tests. Most laboratory parameters returned to normal range, while persistent abnormalities in kidney and liver function test were observed in a subset of participants after discharge. Two years after COVID-19 infection, persistent symptoms of long COVID and psychological symptoms, as well as abnormalities in pulmonary function tests and CT, were still common in a subset of recovering individuals. These findings were limited by the lack of a healthy control group and pre-COVID assessments, which should be confirmed by further large-scale studies.

COVID-19 follow-up long COVID risk factor SARS-CoV-2

SCI

English

First ; Corresponding

National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars[82025022];

WOS:000878830600001

2-s2.0-85141683050

Scopus

1.Institute for Hepatology,National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Disease,Shenzhen Third People’s Hospital; The Second Affiliated Hospital,School of Medicine,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,China
2.Shenzhen Research Center for Communicable Disease Diagnosis and Treatment of Chinese Academy of Medical Science,Shenzhen,China
3.Guangdong Key Laboratory for Anti-infection Drug Quality Evaluation,Shenzhen,China
4.

Li，Dapeng,Liao，Xuejiao,Liu，Zhi,et al. Healthy outcomes of patients with COVID-19 two years after the infection: a prospective cohort study[J]. Emerging Microbes and Infections,2022,11(1):2680-2688.

Li，Dapeng.,Liao，Xuejiao.,Liu，Zhi.,Ma，Zhenghua.,Dong，Jingke.,...&Liu，Lei.(2022).Healthy outcomes of patients with COVID-19 two years after the infection: a prospective cohort study.Emerging Microbes and Infections,11(1),2680-2688.

Li，Dapeng,et al."Healthy outcomes of patients with COVID-19 two years after the infection: a prospective cohort study".Emerging Microbes and Infections 11.1(2022):2680-2688.