Long COVID in a prospective cohort of home-isolated patients
Bjørn Blomberg, Kristin Greve-Isdahl Mohn, Karl A. Brokstad, Fan Zhou, Dagrun Waag Linchausen, Bent‐Are Hansen, Sarah Lartey, Therese Bredholt Onyango, Kanika Kuwelker, Marianne Sævik, Hauke Bartsch, Camilla Tøndel, Bård Reiakvam Kittang, Anders Madsen, Geir Bredholt, Juha Vahokoski, Elisabeth Berg Fjelltveit, Amit Bansal, Mai-Chi Trieu, Sonja Ljostveit, Jan Olofsson, Nina Urke Ertesvåg, Helene Heitmann Sandnes, Anette Corydon, Hanne Søyland, M Eidsheim, Kjerstin Jakobsen, Nina Guldseth, Synnøve Ygre Hauge, Rebecca Jane Cox, Nina Langeland
Abstract
Long-term complications after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are common in hospitalized patients, but the spectrum of symptoms in milder cases needs further investigation. We conducted a long-term follow-up in a prospective cohort study of 312 patients-247 home-isolated and 65 hospitalized-comprising 82% of total cases in Bergen during the first pandemic wave in Norway. At 6 months, 61% (189/312) of all patients had persistent symptoms, which were independently associated with severity of initial illness, increased convalescent antibody titers and pre-existing chronic lung disease. We found that 52% (32/61) of home-isolated young adults, aged 16-30 years, had symptoms at 6 months, including loss of taste and/or smell (28%, 17/61), fatigue (21%, 13/61), dyspnea (13%, 8/61), impaired concentration (13%, 8/61) and memory problems (11%, 7/61). Our findings that young, home-isolated adults with mild COVID-19 are at risk of long-lasting dyspnea and cognitive symptoms highlight the importance of infection control measures, such as vaccination.