Health status and fatigue before and after COVID-19

<bold>INTRODUCTION:</bold> COVID-19 has had a significant impact on patients who survived the disease. The literature has defined the most prevalent sequelae of disease. Our aim was to assess health status and fatigue before and after COVID-19 in hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients. <bold>METHODS:</bold> We performed an observational study. Patients recovered from COVID-19 without hospitalization, and patients hospitalized at Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital (Granada), were recruited. Evaluations were conducted 6 months after COVID-19. Assessment included health status with the Visual Analogue Scale of the EuroQol-5D; and fatigue with the Borg Scale and the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS). Patients were asked to provide current responses and to recall their pre-COVID-19 status. <bold>RESULTS:</bold> 262 patients were recruited (70 hospitalized and 192 non-hospitalized). The differences in means between pre- and post-COVID-19 and the p-values for the variables measured in hospitalized vs non-hospitalized patients were as follow: health status -18.63±4.09 Vs -7.14±3.4 (<0.001); fatigue at rest (Borg) 1.17±2.68 Vs 0.59±1.91 (0.054); fatigue in light exercise (Borg) 3.14±3.22 Vs 1.18±2.34 (<0.001); fatigue in moderate exercise (Borg) 3.93±3.58 Vs 1.17±2.37 (<0.001); fatigue in intense exercise (Borg) 3.14±3.58 Vs 1.10±2.04 (<0.001); and fatigue (FSS) 22.34±19.38 Vs 9.28±14.96 (<0.001), respectively. <bold>CONCLUSIONS:</bold> Hospitalized and non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients experience decreased health status and increased fatigue compared to pre-illness levels. However, hospitalized patients experience a greater decrease in health status and a greater increase in fatigue after COVID-19 than non-hospitalized patients.