Dyspnea, pain, reduced mobility reported 1 year after COVID-19 hospitalization

Key points to remember:

• One year after hospitalization for COVID-19, dyspnea, pain, and reduced mobility were commonly reported.
• Comorbidities at the time of critical COVID-19 were linked to reduced mobility.

WASHINGTON — Dyspnea, pain, and reduced mobility were commonly reported in COVID-19 survivors 1 year after hospitalization, according to an abstract presented at the American Thoracic Society’s international conference.

Roseline’s death

“We interpret these findings to suggest that efforts to improve patient health after COVID should focus on preventing and treating shortness of breath, pain, and limited mobility,” Roseline Agyekum, BS, research specialist at the University of Pennsylvania and PharmD candidate, told Healio. “Furthermore, we believe our findings challenge any notion that ‘long COVID’ is an issue of emotional well-being, and instead emphasize the physical and functional consequences of acute infection.” We also believe that since these limitations are reported even by participants who were not critically ill, monitoring for these symptoms might be important regardless of the initial severity of the pneumonia.

In a prospective cohort study, Agyekum and colleagues analyzed 62 patients 12 to 18 months after being hospitalized with COVID-19 between March 2020 and April 2021 to understand the prevalence of dyspnea and several measures of quality of life related to health. They also investigated whether there are certain clinical variables related to long-term lower functional status.

When assessing shortness of breath, the researchers used the Modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) Dyspnea Scale, which rates the severity of shortness of breath from 0 (low severity) to 5 (high severity). . For measures of health-related quality of life, including mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain and discomfort, anxiety and depression, they used the European Quality of Life Scale. five-dimensional life (EQ-5D).

Patients completed both assessments in person or over the phone.

Of the total cohort, 42% (95% CI, 30% to 50%) had dyspnea with a score of at least 2 on the scale 12 to 18 months after their hospitalization. In addition, a greater percentage of patients with moderate to severe dyspnea were Black than white (55% versus 18%; P = .005).

Moderate to severe pain impairment was reported in more than half of the patients (59%; 95% CI 46% to 71%), and the same level of mobility impairment was seen in almost half (49%; 95% CI, 36%-62%), according to the researchers.

“Although we anticipated that participants might report shortness of breath after hospitalization with COVID-19, we did not expect such a high proportion of patients to report pain and mobility difficulties,” Agyekum told Healio.

Researchers have found that reduced mobility is linked to high blood pressure (P = 0.03) and diabetes (P = 0.01) at hospitalization; however, they found no variables related to the observed high degree of pain.

Additionally, no outcomes at 12 to 18 months were found to be related to patients’ hypoxia levels in the hospital, according to the abstract.

“We were surprised that participants’ perceptions of shortness of breath, mobility, and pain limitation were not associated with the severity of their COVID-19 pneumonia while hospitalized,” Agyekum told Healio. “Even people who never needed supplemental oxygen while hospitalized frequently reported shortness of breath, pain and reduced mobility. We also demonstrated that anxiety and depression were relatively infrequent complaints after COVID-19 and were occurring at rates very similar to what has been reported in the general population.

In future studies, Agyekum recommends continued assessment of patients after discharge from hospital.

“It is becoming common for observational and interventional studies to consider the post-hospital trajectory of patients and design ways to capture health information months after acute pneumonia,” Agyekum told Healio.

For more information:

Roseline Agyekum, BS, can be attached to [email protected].

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American Thoracic Society International Conference