How much does Long COVID after mild illness hurt quality of life?
In 112 Long-COVID patients (mostly mild acute COVID), SF-36 physical scores were markedly below Swiss norms; fatigue and concentration problems dominated.
Source
Impaired health-related quality of life in long-COVID syndrome after mild to moderate COVID-19
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cohort — Prospective Long-COVID clinic cohort with HRQoL instruments vs Swiss population norms
- N
- N=112 · Long-COVID patients after mostly mild acute infection; Feb–Aug 2021
- Population
- Adults with Long-COVID after mild-to-moderate COVID-19 at University Hospital Zurich
- Outcome
- Impaired health-related quality of life (SF-36, EQ-5D-5L, SGRQ)
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How much does Long COVID after mild illness hurt quality of life?
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
112 patients; 86 (76.8%) female.
112 patients were included, 86 (76.8%) were female, median (IQR) age was 43 (32.0, 52.5) years with 126 (91, 180) days of symptoms.
90.2% mild acute infection.
Patients mostly suffered initially from a mild acute SARS-CoV-2 infection (90.2%).
What they did
Enrolled Long-COVID clinic patients (Feb–Aug 2021), measured HRQoL with SGRQ, EQ-5D-5L, and SF-36, and compared physical/mental scores with Swiss general-population references before and during the pandemic.
What they found
112 patients (76.8% women; median age 43); 90.2% had mild acute infection. Fatigue 81.3%, concentration difficulties and dyspnea each 59.8%. SF-36 physical health scores were remarkably lower than Swiss norms; about one-third reported reduced workload.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Specialty-clinic sampling over-represents people seeking care; no randomized intervention effect is estimated.
Key terms
- HRQoL
- Health-related quality of life across physical and mental domains.
- SF-36
- 36-item survey yielding physical and mental component scores.
- PCS
- Physical component summary T-score from SF-36.
- Long-COVID
- Ongoing symptoms after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection.
- EQ-5D-5L
- Five-dimension preference-based health status measure.
- SGRQ
- St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire of respiratory HRQoL.
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Clinic cohort N?
Common questions
N and sex mix?
112 patients; 76.8% female.
Acute severity?
90.2% mild acute infection.
Top symptom?
Fatigue (81.3%).
SF-36 finding?
Physical domain scores markedly below Swiss norms.
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