Post-discharge quality of life of COVID-19 patients at 1-month follow-up: A cross-sectional study in the largest tertiary care hospital of Bangladesh

• Published in: PloS one 2023-01, Vol.18 (1), p.e0280882-e0280882
• Main Authors: Hoque, Mohammad Mahfuzul, Datta, Ponkaj Kanti, Basu, Kamalesh Chandra, Rahman, Muhammad Faizur, Khan, Mohammed Masudul Hassan, Kamal, Mohammad Mostafa, Mahmud, Reaz, Aftab, Kazi Ali, Khan, Ejrarul Alam, Mahmud, Imran, Sharmin, Rumana, Khan, Md Abdullah Saeed, Hasan, Mohammad Jahid, Amin, Md Robed, Miah, Md Titu, Rahman, Md Mujibur
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aftercare; Analysis; Anxiety; Bangladesh - epidemiology; Biology and Life Sciences; Body mass index; Consent; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; COVID-19 - epidemiology; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data collection; Discomfort; Earth Sciences; Ethics; Female; Health aspects; Health Status; Hospitalization; Hospitals; Humans; Male; Medical research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Medicine, Experimental; Mental depression; Middle Aged; Mobility; Obesity; Overweight; Pain; Patient Discharge; Patients; People and Places; Quality assessment; Quality of Life; Questionnaires; Social Sciences; Sociodemographics; Subacute care; Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires; Tertiary; Tertiary Care Centers; Urban areas; Urban environments; Variance analysis
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280882

There is increasing evidence of the post-COVID-19 suffering and decreased quality of life in the COVID-19 patients. This study aimed to assess the quality of life and associated factors of COVID-19 patients at one month after discharge from the hospital. This was a cross-sectional study that was conducted at the post-covid clinic of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) where RT-PCR-confirmed adult COVID-19 recovered patients were enrolled one month after discharge from the same hospital. They were consecutively selected from January 01 to May 30. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used for the data collection for clinical variables. The generic multi-attributable utility instrument EQ-5D-5L was used for assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL). A total of 563 patients were enrolled in the study. The patients had a mean age with standard deviation (±SD) of 51.18 (±13.49) years and 55.95% were male. The mean (SD) EQ-5D-5L index score and EQ-VAS scores were 0.78 (±0.19) and 70.26 (±11.13), respectively. Overall, 45.77%, 50.99%, 52.79%, 55.14% and 62.16% had problems (slight to extreme) in the mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression dimensions, respectively. Patients aged ≥60 years had significant problem in mobility (odds ratio [OR] 3.24, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.07-9.77). Female participants were 5.50 times (95% CI: 2.22-13.62) more likely to have problems in their usual activities. In comparison to urban area, living in a peri-urban setting was significantly associated with problems in mobility (OR 1.89, 95% CI: 1.13-3.20), pain/discomfort (OR 1.82, 95% CI: 1.04-3.12) and anxiety/depression (OR 2.16, 95% CI: 1.22-3.84). Comorbid patients were 1.75 times (95% CI: 1.07-2.85) more likely to report problems in the pain/discomfort dimension. Presence of symptom(s) was associated with problems in self-care (OR 3.27, 95%CI: 1.31-8.18), usual-activity (OR 3.08, 95%CI: 1.21-7.87), pain/discomfort dimensions (OR 2.75, 95%CI: 1.09-6.96) and anxiety/depression (OR 3.35, 95%CI: 1.35-8.30). Specific management strategies should be planned to address the factors associated with low health-related quality of life in post-acute care of COVID-19 patients.