How much does Long COVID after mild illness hurt quality of life?

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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

Malesevic S, Sievi NA, Baumgartner P, et al. · Scientific reports · 2023

doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-34678-8 Read the full paper ↗65 citationscc by

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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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.