Post-COVID-19 condition in patients with mild-moderate infection

Introduction: Recognizing a post-COVID-19 condition’s prevalence and severity is essential for patient follow-up decisions. However, few robust longitudinal data on long-lasting symptoms of COVID-19 are available, especially in mild-moderate disease. Aims: This study aimed to identify the most frequent persistent and emerging symptoms of COVID-19, possible association with comorbidities, and the impact of COVID-19 infection on patients’ health status, in a primary healthcare facility, up to one year of disease onset. Methods: Telephone interviews were conducted six weeks, twelve weeks, and twelve months after COVID-19 infection to screen from acute phase clinical presentation up to one year after disease onset. Symptom persistence, patients' comorbidities and their impact on long-lasting effects of COVID-19 infection, and patients’ self-perception of their health status were investigated. Results: Long-lasting COVID-19 symptoms were predominantly asthenia, anosmia, dysgeusia, arthralgia, memory, and/or concentration problems. Health status after COVID-19 disease had worsened at post-acute disease (six and twelve weeks) and, after twelve months, some patients did not return to their usual health status. Susceptibility to prolonged symptoms could be associated with predictors, namely some symptoms present in the acute phase (myalgias, dyspnoea, asthenia, headache, anosmia, dysgeusia, diarrhoea, lumbar pain), presence of comorbidity, age over 40 and female sex. Conclusions: The health consequences of COVID-19 extend far beyond acute infection. Prolonged COVID-19 symptoms were associated with specific patients’ characteristics and acute disease presentation. Patients’ health status deteriorated after COVID-19, and several patients did not recover one year later. For these reasons, attention should be guaranteed over time, independently of COVID-19 severity.