Long COVID in hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients in a large cohort in Northwest Spain, a prospective cohort study

Perez Gonzalez, A.; Araujo-Ameijeiras, A.; Fernandez-Villar, A.; Crespo, M.; Poveda, E.

Background. Survivors to COVID-19 have described long-term symptoms after acute disease. These signs constitute a heterogeneous group named long COVID or persistent COVID. Objective: The aim of this study is to describe persisting symptoms six months after COVID-19 diagnosis in a prospective cohort in the Northwest Spain Design. This is a prospective cohort study performed in the COVID-19 Cohort of Galicia Sur Health Institute (COHVID-GS). Participants: This cohort includes patients in clinical follow-up in a health area of 569,534 inhabitants after SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 diagnosis. Clinical and epidemiological characteristics were collected during the follow up. Main measures and key results. A total of 284 patients completed 6 months follow-up, 176 (69.4%) required hospitalization and 29 (10.2%) of them needed critical care. At six months, 119 (48.0%) patients described one or more persisting symptoms. The most prevalent were: extra-thoracic symptoms (39.1%), chest symptoms (27%), dyspnoea (20.6%), and fatigue (16.1%). These symptoms were more common in hospitalized patients (52.3% vs 38.2%) and in women (59.0% vs 40.5%). The multivariate analysis identified Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), female gender and tobacco consumption as risk factors for long COVID. Conclusions. Persisting symptoms are common after COVID-19 especially in hospitalized patients compared to outpatients (52.3% vs. 38.2%). Based on these findings, special attention and clinical follow-up after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection should be provided for hospitalized patients with previous lung diseases, tobacco consumption, and females.