Quality of Life, Fatigue, and Physical Symptoms Post-COVID-19 Condition: A Cross-Sectional Comparative Study
Maha Al‐Rasheed, Sinaa Al-Aqeel, Ghada I. Aboheimed, Noura Alrasheed, Norah O. Abanmy, Ghadeer Alhamid, Hadeel Mohammed Alnemari, Saad Alkhowaiter, Abdullah Alharbi, Fowad Khurshid, Khaled Trabelsi, Haitham Jahrami, Ahmed S. BaHammam
Abstract
The magnitude of post-COVID-19 syndrome was not thoroughly investigated. This study evaluated the quality of life and persistence of fatigue and physical symptoms of individuals post-COVID-19 compared with noninfected controls. The study included 965 participants; 400 had previous COVID-19 disease and 565 controls without COVID-19. The questionnaire collected data on comorbidities, COVID-19 vaccination, general health questions, and physical symptoms, in addition to validated measures of quality of life (SF-36 scale), fatigue (fatigue severity scale, FSS), and dyspnea grade. COVID-19 participants complained more frequently of weakness, muscle pain, respiratory symptoms, voice disorders, imbalance, taste and smell loss, and menstrual problems compared to the controls. Joint symptoms, tingling, numbness, hypo/hypertension, sexual dysfunction, headache, bowel, urinary, cardiac, and visual symptoms did not differ between groups. Dyspnea grade II–IV did not differ significantly between groups (p = 0.116). COVID-19 patients scored lower on the SF-36 domains of role physical (p = 0.045), vitality (p < 0.001), reported health changes (p < 0.001), and mental-components summary (p = 0.014). FSS scores were significantly higher in COVID-19 participants (3 (1.8–4.3) vs. 2.6 (1.4–4); p < 0.001). COVID-19 effects could persist beyond the acute infection phase. These effects include changes in quality of life, fatigue, and persistence of physical symptoms.