The researchers found that
“More than three-quarters of the cohort of patients with COVID-19 still had at least one symptom six months after being discharged from hospital.“
In their study, the researchers found that 76% of patients with COVID-19 from a hospital in Wuhan, China were still asymptomatic after 6 months of follow-up.
The research, which appears in The Lancet, identifies the most common symptoms that study participants continue to experience.
It will also highlight the potential impact of COVID-19 on participants’ heart and lung health and identify potential risk factors related to the long-term effects of COVID-19.
With this in mind, “The researchers conducted a study of 1,733 patients who were discharged from hospitals in Wuhan, China, between January 7 and May 29, 2020, after being diagnosed with COVID-19.”
Participants held follow-up meetings for an average of 186 days after discharge. During the meeting, each individual personally interviews a doctor to determine which symptoms they are still experiencing.
In addition, a subset of the 349 participants completed lung function tests, and 94 of those who received antibody tests when their infection was most severe underwent subsequent antibody tests.
The researchers found that,
“76% of participants still had at least one symptom of COVID-19 at their next appointment.”
The most common symptom was muscle weakness or fatigue, which affected 63% of study participants. The authors reported that 26% of the participants experienced insomnia and 23% had anxiety or depression.
Of those who completed pulmonary function tests, the researchers found a correlation between the severity of baseline COVID-19 infection in humans and their pulmonary function at follow-up.
56% of people requiring ventilation in hospital had decreased oxygen flow to the bloodstream when they were monitored. It affects 22% of those who don’t need oxygen.
There was also a correlation between disease severity and the results of the 6-minute walk test: 29% of people requiring ventilation were performed below the lower limit of the normal range compared with 24% of people who did not need oxygen.
In a sample of 822 participants, 13% had worse kidney function than those in hospitals.
Finally, looking at data from 94 people who had antibody tests, the researchers found that the number of people who tested positive for neutralizing antibodies decreased from 96.2% to 58.5%. The average content of neutralizing antibodies also decreased – 47%.
