ICU post- discharge persistent symptoms, self-reported health and quality of life of COVID-19 survivors: A cohort study

Understanding the consequences and health impact of COVID-19 survivors discharged from the ICU is still unclear. The aim of this study was to investigated persistent symptoms, health satisfaction and health related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients that were hospitalized due COVID-19 infection after 30, 90 and 180 days from ICU discharge. This is a multicentric prospective cohort study of COVID-19 survivors discharged from 8 hospitals of Curitiba – Paraná (Brazil), between September 2020 and January 2022. Eligible COVID 19 survivors were contacted by phone and invited to answer telephone survey at 30, 90 and 180 days after ICU discharge. They responded a phone questionnaire to collect post-discharge clinical symptoms, and we also asked about health satisfaction and HRQoL. 62 COVID-19 survivors (51,6% males, mean age 50,3 years, median length of ICU stay of 13 days) responded to the telephone survey at 30, 90 and 180 days. The most persistent symptoms were fatigue (65,9%, 51,3%, 44,7%, respectively), mild dyspnea (42%, 31%, 29,8%, respectively) and myalgia (29%, 22,1%, 17%, respectively). Myalgia showed a significant reduction from 30 days to 180 days (p=0,034), and the number of symptoms also reduced significantly (30 to 90 days, p=0.018, 30 to 180 days, p=0.001 ). At 30, 90 and 180 follow up days the most patients had reported “good” quality of life (59,7%, 62,9%, 51,6%, respectively), and “satisfied” with health (43,5%, 48,4%, 46,8%, respectively). We found that COVID-19 symptoms persist to 180 days, fatigue more commonly. Nevertheless, in this cohort study, most COVID-19 survivors reported good quality of life and were satisfied with health.