Clinical, sociodemographic and environmental factors impact post-COVID-19 syndrome

Abstract

Background Sociodemographic and environmental factors are associat-ed with incidence, severity, and mortality of COVID-19. However, little is known about the role of such factors in persisting symptoms among re-covering patients. We designed a cohort study of hospitalized COVID-19 survivors to describe persistent symptoms and identify factors associated with post-COVID-19 syndrome. Methods We included patients hospitalized between March to August 2020 who were alive six months after hospitalization. We collected indi-vidual and clinical characteristics during hospitalization and at follow-up assessed ten symptoms with standardized scales, 19 yes/no symptoms, a functional status and a quality-of-life scale and performed four clinical tests. We examined individual exposure to greenspace and air pollution and considered neighbourhood acute accent s population density and socioeconomic conditions as contextual factors in multilevel regression analysis. Results We included 749 patients with a median follow-up of 200 (IQR = 185-235) days, and 618 (83%) had at least one of the ten symptoms measured with scales. Pain (41%), fatigue (38%) and posttraumatic stress disorder (35%) were the most frequent. COVID-19 severity, comorbidities, BMI, female sex, younger age, and low socioeconomic position were associ-ated with different symptoms. Exposure to ambient air pollution was asso-ciated with higher dyspnoea and fatigue scores and lower functional status. Conclusions We identified a high frequency of persistent symptoms among COVID-19 survivors that were associated with clinical, sociodemographic, and environmental variables. These findings indicate that most patients re-covering from COVID-19 will need post-discharge care, and an additional burden to health care systems, especially in LMICs, should be expected.