Predictors of post-COVID symptoms in Egyptian patients: Drugs used in COVID-19 treatment are incriminated

• Published in: PloS one 2022-03, Vol.17 (3), p.e0266175-e0266175
• Main Authors: Abdelhafiz, Ahmed Samir, Ali, Asmaa, Maaly, Ayman Mohamed, Mahgoub, Mohamed Anwar, Ziady, Hany Hassan, Sultan, Eman Anwar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Anti-Bacterial Agents; Antibiotics; Antiviral drugs; Biology and Life Sciences; Chronic fatigue syndrome; Coronaviruses; Corticoids; Corticosteroids; COVID-19; COVID-19 - drug therapy; COVID-19 - epidemiology; Cross-Sectional Studies; Egypt - epidemiology; Female; Health services; Humans; Infections; Intensive care; Laboratories; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Middle East respiratory syndrome; Patients; Polls & surveys; Post traumatic stress disorder; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Respiratory diseases; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Sex differences; Signs and symptoms; Social networks; Statistical analysis; Steroids; Surveys; Viral diseases
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266175

COVID-19 is a multisystem disease, and some patients suffer from physical or psychological symptoms for weeks or even months after infection, which is described as post-COVID syndrome. The goal of this study is evaluating the prevalence of post-COVID-19 symptoms among Egyptian patients and detecting the factors associated with the presence of these symptoms. An on-line cross-sectional survey using Google Forms was used to conduct the present study, which took place between June and August 2021. Three hundred and ninety-six participants filled in the survey. The mean age of participants was 41.4 years. Most participants had mild to moderate COVID-19 (81.31%). The prevalence of post-COVID-19 symptoms was 87.63%, where the most frequent symptom was fatigue (60.86%). Female sex, the presence of comorbidities, lower degree of education, longer disease duration, as well as severe and critical forms of the disease were significantly associated with the presence of post-COVID symptoms. Using regression analysis, the predictors of post-COVID symptoms were severe and critical forms of the disease and intake of antibiotics and corticosteroids for treatment of COVID-19. COVID-19 is followed by high prevalence of post-COVID symptoms. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report the relationship between the use of antibiotics and the development of post-COVID symptoms. We recommend further studies to understand this relationship. We also recommend restricting the use of these drugs to indicated cases according to the international guidelines. More studies are needed to gain better understanding of post-COVID symptoms especially in females.