Patients often report various symptoms after recovering from acute covid-19. Previous studies on the condition after covid-19 have not corrected the prevalence and severity of these common symptoms before covid-19 and in those who were not infected with sars-cov-2.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736 (22)01214-4/fulltext#seccestitle130
01 data source
The study examined the health and health-related behaviors of 167729 people in the northern Netherlands (> 98% white, 58% female).
From November 2019 to February 2022, the researchers investigated the course of the post covid-19 condition (i.e., long-term covid) over time, the symptoms related to the post covid-19 condition, and the prevalence of the post covid-19 condition. In addition, researchers retrieved research and policy documents from (global) public health institutions (such as who) aimed at clinically defining the situation after covid-19.
Most of the previous studies assessing the prevalence and symptoms associated with diseases after covid-19 did not include enough control groups, so it was not possible to adjust for the prevalence of somatic symptoms in the population without covid-19. Most studies were conducted in a clinical setting, ignoring the post covid-19 status in the general population. In the context of these deficiencies, a systematic review estimated that the median proportion of patients with at least one symptom after covid-19 was 72.5%.
02 23 symptoms
The researchers analyzed 23 kinds of symptoms: headache, dizziness, chest pain, back pain, nausea, muscle pain, dyspnea, alternating cold and hot sensation, tingling of limbs, throat lump, general fatigue, heavy arm or leg, respiratory pain, runny nose, sore throat, dry cough, wet cough, fever, diarrhea, stomachache, senile disease or loss of smell, sneezing and itching of eyes.
To assess the persistence of somatic symptoms after covid-19 diagnosis, the individual average score of participants for each symptom before covid-19 was first calculated. Symptom severity reports collected one week before covid-19 diagnosis were excluded because the increase in symptom severity might prompt participants to seek a sars-cov-2 test or a doctor's diagnosis. Participants were excluded from the analysis if there was no information on symptom severity prior to covid-19 diagnosis.
03 urgent issues
In patients 90-180 days after covid-19, 3-14% of patients developed chest pain. Although we found similar prevalence of some of these symptoms, we also showed that these prevalence rates were lower when considering the severity of symptoms in patients before covid-19. In addition, we found that the most common symptom was not the most obvious symptom after covid-19. Dyspnea occurred in 7.9% of patients with covid-19, and chest pain occurred in 5.7%. Muscle pain was the only infrequently reported symptom (1 • 5% of patients).
This study shows that in the general population, about one in eight patients with covid-19 may occur in the disease after covid-19. The core symptoms of the disease after covid-19 include chest pain, dyspnea, throat lump, respiratory pain, muscle pain, arm or leg heaviness, senile disease or loss of smell, alternating cold and hot sensation, tingling of limbs and general fatigue. This finding indicates that the situation after covid-19 is an urgent problem.
Reference material:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01214-4/fulltext#seccestitle80
Source:
https://www.cn-healthcare.com/article/20220808/content-571995.html
