Symptom profile, case and symptom clustering, clinical and demographic characteristics of a multicentre cohort of 1297 patients evaluated for Long-COVID

• Published in: BMC medicine 2024-11, Vol.22 (1), p.532-11, Article 532
• Main Authors: Floridia, Marco, Giuliano, Marina, Weimer, Liliana Elena, Ciardi, Maria Rosa, Agostoni, Piergiuseppe, Palange, Paolo, Rovere Querini, Patrizia, Zucco, Silvia, Tosato, Matteo, Lo Forte, Aldo, Bonfanti, Paolo, Lacedonia, Donato, Barisione, Emanuela, Figliozzi, Stefano, Andreozzi, Paola, Damiano, Cecilia, Pricci, Flavia, Onder, Graziano
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abnormalities; Adult; Aged; Arthralgia; Autoimmune diseases; Brain; Cardiovascular disease; Care and treatment; Causes of; Cluster Analysis; Clustering; Cohort Studies; Comorbidity; Comparative analysis; Continuous positive airway pressure; Cough; COVID-19; COVID-19 - diagnosis; COVID-19 - epidemiology; Demographics; Demography; Diagnosis; Disturbances; Dyspnea; Dyspnea - epidemiology; Dyspnea - physiopathology; Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; Fatigue; Fatigue - epidemiology; Female; Fog; Gait; Gender; Headache; Heterogeneity; Humans; Hypertension; Impact analysis; Infection; Infections; Intensive care; Ischemia; Long COVID; Male; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Men; Middle Aged; Muscular fatigue; Olfaction; Pain; Pandemics; Paresthesia; Patients; Population studies; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome - epidemiology; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome - pathology; Post-COVID; Prospective Studies; Regression analysis; Regression models; Respiration; Respiratory failure; Retrospective Studies; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Severity of Illness Index; Sex; Shortness of breath; Signs and symptoms; Symptom Assessment; Symptom clusters; Symptoms; Tachycardia; Thorax; Vaccination; Ventilators; Viral diseases; Women; Womens health
• ISSN: 1741-7015; 1741-7015
• DOI: 10.1186/s12916-024-03746-9

Long-COVID symptoms remain incompletely defined due to a large heterogeneity in the populations studied, case definitions, and settings of care. The aim of this study was to assess, in patients accessing care for Long-COVID, the profile of symptoms reported, the possible clustering of symptoms and cases, the functional status compared to pre-infection, and the impact on working activity. Multicentre cohort study with a collection of both retrospective and prospective data. Demographics, comorbidities, severity and timing of acute COVID, subjective functional status, working activity and presence of 30 different symptoms were collected using a shortened version of the WHO Post COVID-19 Case Report Form. The impact on working activity was assessed in multivariable logistic regression models. Clustering of symptoms was analysed by hierarchical clustering and the clustering of cases by two-step automatic clustering. The study evaluated 1297 individuals (51.5% women) from 30 clinical centres. Men and women had different profiles in terms of comorbidities, vaccination status, severity and timing of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. Fatigue (55.9%) and dyspnea (47.2%) were the most frequent symptoms. Women reported more symptoms (3.6 vs. 3.1, p