Factors Predicting Health‐Related Quality of Life in Post-COVID Patients: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Abstract Background Post-COVID conditions can occur in every system of the body with physical and mental impacts resulting in a poor quality of life. Therefore, knowledge of the factors affecting health-related quality of life is important for treating patients with post-COVID conditions. This was a descriptive correlational research study with a cross-sectional research design aiming to determine the predictive power of body mass index (BMI), sleep quality, fatigue, and social support to improve health-related quality of life among patients with post-COVID conditions. Methods The study enrolled 126 male and female patients with post-COVID conditions aged 18 years and above. All patients were admitted to the outpatient departments of two tertiary hospitals in Bangkok, Thailand, for examination and treatment from April to September 2023. The research instruments included personal data and illness record questionnaires, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Fatigue Scale, Revised Thai version of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and EuroQol Group-5 Dimension-5 Levels. The patient basic data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Predictive power was analyzed using linear multiple regression with statistical significance set at 0.05. Results The patient with post-COVID conditions had health-related quality of life at mean of 0.826 (SD = 0.102). Multiple regression analysis revealed that all of the independent could account for 68.40% (R2 = 0.684, F = 65.39, p < 0.001) of the variance explained of health-related quality of life. The strongest predictor was fatigue (β = 0.673, p < 0.001), followed by social support (β = 0.214, p < 0.001) and sleep quality (β = −0.127, p = 0.033). Conclusion Patients with post-COVID conditions experienced negative effects on health-related quality of life. Therefore, nurses and health care providers should assess health-related quality of life and its determinant factors, namely fatigue, sleep quality, and social support. Moreover, programs should be created to relieve fatigue or promote sleep quality in patients with post-COVID condition to achieve a good health-related quality of life in the future.