Significance and Associated Factors of Long-Term Sequelae in Patients After Acute COVID-19 Infection in Korea
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Infect Chemother. 2021 Sep;53(3):463-476 https://doi.org/10.3947/ic.2021.0022 pISSN 2093-2340·eISSN 2092-6448 Original Article Significance and Associated Factors of Long-Term Sequelae in Patients after Acute COVID-19 Infection in Korea Yoonjung Kim , Shin-Woo Kim , Hyun-Ha Chang , Ki Tae Kwon , Sohyun Bae , and Soyoon Hwang Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea Received: Mar 2, 2021 Accepted: Jul 5, 2021 ABSTRACT Corresponding Author: Background: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has progressed, there Shin-Woo Kim, MD, PhD has been a growing awareness of the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 infection. However, Department of Internal Medicine, Kyungpook until recently, there was no published study that investigated COVID-19-related sequelae and National University School of Medicine, 130, Dongdeok-ro, Jung-gu, Daegu 41944, Korea. related factors for greater than six months from the onset of COVID-19 symptoms or the time Tel: +82-53-200-6525 of COVID-19 diagnosis in Korea. Fax: +82-53-424-5542 Materials and Methods: Online survey and statistical analysis were conducted by Kyungpook E-mail: [email protected] National University Hospital on 5,252 patients diagnosed as COVID-19 between February 18, Copyright © 2021 by The Korean Society 2020 and March 14, 2020. Responders aged between 16 and 70 years were included. Long- of Infectious Diseases, Korean Society for term sequelae were defined as persistent symptoms or signs ≥ 6 months after acute COVID-19 Antimicrobial Therapy, and The Korean Society infection. The survey was conducted from September 8, 2020 to September 10, 2020. for AIDS Clinical characteristics and self-reported clinical sequelae of the responders were analyzed This is an Open Access article distributed to investigate the prevalence and factors associated with sequelae using descriptive and under the terms of the Creative Commons multivariate logistic regression analysis. Attribution Non-Commercial License (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) Results: The median period from the date of the first symptom onset or COVID-19 diagnosis to which permits unrestricted non-commercial the time of the survey was 195 (interquartile range [IQR] 191 - 200) days. The response rate was use, distribution, and reproduction in any 17.1% (900 out of 5,252). The median age was 31 (IQR 24.0 - 47.0) years old, and 627 responders medium, provided the original work is properly were female (69.7%). Regarding the disease severity, 29 (3.2%) were asymptomatic, 763 cited. (84.8%) mild, 86 (9.6%) moderate, 17 (1.9%) severe, and 5 (0.6%) critical. In total, 591 (65.7%) ORCID iDs responders suffered from COVID-19-related long-term sequelae and 78 (8.6%) responders were Yoonjung Kim receiving outpatient treatment for COVID-19-related long-term sequelae. The most common https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7454-4014 symptoms identified during the isolation period were anosmia and ageusia at 44.5% and Shin-Woo Kim 43.5%, respectively. Fatigue was the most common long-term sequelae, accounting for 253 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3755-8249 (26.2%) responders, followed by concentration difficulty, amnesia, cognitive dysfunction, Hyun-Ha Chang https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9405-2121 anxiety, and depression, which accounted for over 20%. Female gender was identified as the Ki Tae Kwon factor associated with mental and psychological long-term sequelae (P <0.05). https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4666-0672 Conclusion: The results showed that the rate of COVID-19-related long-term sequelae Sohyun Bae was 65.7%. The most common long-term sequela was fatigue. The risk factor identified https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0206-7108 was female gender. It was found that the long-term sequelae had various manifestations, Soyoon Hwang https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3618-174X including mental and psychological aspects. To improve the care of COVID-19 recovered patients with COVID-19-related long-term sequelae, the participation of a comprehensive and an interdisciplinary group of researchers is required. Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Sequelae; Long-term consequences; Clinical sequelae https://icjournal.org 463 Long-term sequelae in patients after COVID-19 Funding INTRODUCTION This work was supported by the Research Program funded by the Korea Centers for With the progression of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, there Disease Control and Prevention (fund code 2020-ER5334-00) has been a growing awareness about the long-term impacts of COVID-19 infection, including cardiac, neurological, metabolic, and respiratory long-term sequelae. The Conflicts of interest clinical characteristics, treatment, and prognosis of patients who recovered from COVID-19 No conflicts of interest. infection have been extensively studied [1-3]; however, to our knowledge, there are limited Author Contributions studies on the prevalence, nature, duration, and factors related to sequelae in convalescent Conceptualization: YJK, SWK. Data curation: COVID-19 patients. YJK, SWK. Investigation: YJK, SB, SH, KTK, HHC, SWK. Supervision: SWK. Writing - Increasing evidence suggests that COVID-19 patients can experience long-lasting symptoms original draft: YJK, SWK. Writing - review & [4, 5], irrespective of the severity of the initial infection. Hence, detailed studies on COVID-19 editing: SB, SH, KTK, HHC, SWK. disease severity are required to establish the optimal management of such individuals. We know from the previous studies that severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) from previous coronavirus epidemics were associated with a significant psychiatric burden in the acute and postillness stages. In SARS and MERS, after recovery from the infection, fatigue, sleep disorder, and impaired concentration and memory were reported in more than 15% of patients at a follow-up period ranging between 6 weeks and 39 months [6-8]. It is identified that individuals with COVID-19 experience psychiatric symptoms persisting months after the initial infection [9]. In particular, significant psychological symptoms, such as depression and anxiety, were reported in up to 40% of patients following COVID-19, similar to patients with previous coronavirus infections [10, 11]. However, few studies have investigated the psychological sequelae [12] and associated factors in recovered COVID-19 patients. Furthermore, because COVID-19 is a new disease, much about the clinical course, including the long-term sequelae, remains uncertain. Daegu is a city with a population of 2.4 million and is the first city in Korea to experience a severe COVID-19 outbreak that affected > 5,000 COVID-19 patients in early 2020. Hence, a large number of patients were cured and recovered from COVID-19 infection, and the follow- up duration for COVID-19 survivors from the Korea was longer than that of patients from other countries around the world. To our knowledge, no study has assessed the COVID-19-related sequelae in Korea. Therefore, we investigated the sequelae in Korean patients to determine whether multiple relevant symptoms subsided after recovering from the COVID-19 infection, and to identify the factors related to the occurrence and persistence of long-term symptoms. MATERIALS AND METHODS 1. Study design and population Google online survey with information of the researcher’s name and analyses were conducted by infectious disease physicians at the Kyungpook National University Hospital located in Daegu city. Among patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 between February 18, 2020 and March 14, 2020, 5,252 recovered patients aged between 16 and 70 years were identified from the clinical data registry provided by the Daegu Center for Infectious Diseases Control and Prevention. The survey duration was 3 days and the survey period was from September 8, 2020 to September 10, 2020. https://icjournal.org https://doi.org/10.3947/ic.2021.0022 464 Long-term sequelae in patients after COVID-19 The questionnaire survey list included sex, birth year, birth date, residential address, COVID-19 diagnosis date, symptom onset date, health-care utilization during and after the infection, quarantine end date, oxygen treatment history, symptoms during the quarantine period with the option of an open text field to add other symptoms, symptoms that persisted beyond the quarantine period, newly diagnosed diseases after COVID-19, exacerbation of underlying diseases after COVID-19, undergoing outpatient treatment for COVID-19-related sequelae, and wanting to connect for medical treatment of sequelae. Symptoms during the isolation period from acute COVID-19 included fever (≥37.5°C), febrile sense, myalgia, arthralgia, chilly sense, fatigue, cough, sore throat, nasal congestion or rhinorrhea, sputum, dyspnea, chest discomfort, chest tightness, palpitation, arrhythmia, headache, depression, anxiety, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea, gastrointestinal discomfort, anosmia, ageusia (loss of taste), and hypoacusis. The sequelae were categorized into 45 symptoms and signs and included fever (≥37.5°C), febrile sense, myalgia, arthralgia, chilly sense, fatigue, cough, sore throat, nasal congestion or rhinorrhea, sputum, dyspnea, chest discomfort, chest tightness, palpitation, arrhythmia, headache, brain fog, cognitive dysfunction, concentration difficulty, amnesia, dizziness, abnormal directional sensibility, insomnia including poor sleep quality, hyperemia, hallucination, seizure, depression, anxiety, social phobia,