Undiagnosed Long COVID-19 in China Among Non-vaccinated Individuals: Identifying Persistent Symptoms and Impacts on Patients' Health-Related Quality of Life

Abstract

AbstractIs Long COVID-19 under-diagnosed? The definition of this new condition has received many contributions, and it is still under development as a great variety of symptoms have been associated to it. This study explores the possibility that there are non-diagnosed cases among individuals who have been infected by SARS-CoV-2 and have not been vaccinated. The long-term symptoms identified among a sample 255 individuals have been associated to Long COVID-19 by recent literature. The study relates these symptoms to risk factors and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) negative impacts. The individuals were screened 1 year after discharge to explore its potential relation to Long COVID-19. Patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and discharged from designated hospitals in a Chinese province between January and April 2020 were included in this study. They received computed tomography (CT) scans one month after discharge. One year after discharge, patients were invited to physical examination and interviewed with questionnaire on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and post-COVID-19 symptoms. Tobit regression and Logistic regression were applied to evaluate the risk factors for health utility value and pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression. One year after discharge, 39.61% patients complained of several of the symptoms associated to Long COVID-19. More than half had abnormal chest CT. Previous studies focused on the post-COVID-19 symptoms and chest CT findings of patients, but few studies have assessed the COVID-19-associated risk factors for health-related quality of life.