A cross-sectional study of persisting symptoms following 2 months post-COVID-19 and risk factors for delayed return to pre-COVID-19 health among patients attending a teaching hospital in Kerala.

Background: A large number of people are being discharged from the hospital following COVID-19 without assessment of recovery. Systematic follow-up identifies the physical and physiological burden which could be used to inform the need for rehabilitation and/or further investigations.

Methodology: A cross-sectional observational study of sample size 103 who were tested positive by TruNAAT in the month of August to September 2020 was conducted, whose data were collected from the medical records. Phone call interviews were conducted 2 months post-COVID-19, after ethical and institutional permission, and they were asked for any persisting symptoms at this point and the risk factors were noted. Data were analysed using various statistical methods.

Result: The most common symptoms at onset were fever (49.5%), cough (28.2%), sore throat (18.4%) and loss of smell (17.5%). The most common comorbidities noted were diabetes mellitus (30.1%), hypertension (14.6%) and heart disease (7.8%). The cases with more than 14 days for COVID-19 to be negative are almost the same in cases with comorbidities (11.1%) and no comorbidities (16.3%). Around 43.7% had post-COVID-19 symptoms. The most common post-COVID-19 symptoms noted were fatigue (28.2%), breathing difficulty (12.6%) and body pain (4.9%). The post_COVID_19 symptoms are significantly higher in cases who took treatment from hospital(moderate to severe cases) (54.4%) compared to the cases who took treatment at home (35.7%). Persisting breathing difficulty is significantly higher in cases with pre-COVID-19 asthma/COPD compared to the cases with no pre-COVID-19 asthma/COPD, which makes COPD and asthma patients to be considered high risk for post-COVID-19 sequelae.

Conclusion: Follow-up of COVID-19 patients should become an essential part of family physician's clinical practice.