Life after COVID hospitalization: Only 1 in 4 feels fully recovered

Only 1 in 4 people feels fully recovered a year after hospitalization for COVID-19, according to a new study in the UK. That’s how long and severe COVID symptoms can be.

“Female sex and obesity were major risk factors for not recovering at 1 year, so was mechanical ventilation,” reported study author Dr Rachael Evans, National Institute for Health Research Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, the University of Leicester in Leicester, UK.

Fatigue, muscle pain, physically slowing down, poor sleep, and breathlessness were the most common symptoms patients experienced beyond 1 year, which she described as  “really striking.”

Evans and her team assessed the recovery of 2,320 patients discharged from 39 UK hospitals between March 7, 2020 and April 18, 2021, using patient-reported outcome measures, physical performance, and organ function at 5 months and 1 year after hospital discharge. Blood samples were taken to check for the presence of inflammatory proteins. [Lancet Respir Med 2022;doi:org/10.1016/S2213-2600(22)00127-8]

Patients’ mean age was 59 years, 36 percent were female, and 28 percent received mechanical ventilation. The number of patients reporting full recovery was similar between 5 months and 1 year.

“At 1 year, female sex and obesity were also associated with more severe ongoing health impairments, including reduced exercise performance and health-related quality of life,” said Evans. “This group may need higher intensity interventions such as supervised rehabilitation.”

Evans’ co-author, Professor Louise Wain from the same institution, emphasized that currently there are no specific therapeutics for long COVID. “Hence, effective interventions are urgently required.” However, as persistent systemic inflammation was observed in patients with moderate-to-severe cognitive impairments, these groups might respond to anti-inflammatory medications.

“Pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions targeting both physical and mental health impairments are warranted to alleviate long COVID symptoms, including specific therapeutic approaches to manage post-traumatic stress disorder,” she added.

Professor Christopher Brightling, another co-author from the University of Leicester, said health-care services are urgently needed to support the large and rapidly increasing patient population in whom a substantial burden of symptoms exist, including reduced exercise capacity and substantially decreased health-related quality of life a year after hospital discharge.

Without effective treatments, long COVID could become a highly prevalent new long-term condition, he warned.