EXPRESS: Risk Factors for Post-acute Sequelae of COVID-19: Survey Results From a Tertiary Care Hospital

Identifying risk factors for post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) is important. We conducted a multicenter cross-sectional survey study to define and characterize risk factors for severe COVID-19 in adults (≥18 years) treated at our virtual COVID-19 clinic from March 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021. We assessed patient demographics, symptom types and persistence, incidence of PASC, and COVID-19-caused hospitalizations. Surveyed patients were also asked to rate their perception of the severity of their acute COVID-19 symptoms. Continuous variables were summarized descriptively. Differences among groups categorized by acute COVID-19 symptom severity level (mild/very mild, moderate, and severe/very severe) were evaluated with the Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test for continuous measures and the Pearson χ test for categorical measures. A total of 3,094 adults completed the survey. More respondents with severe/very severe acute COVID-19 symptoms reported having PASC than did those with mild/very mild and moderate acute symptoms. A significantly greater proportion of respondents with PASC were women (68.4% vs 56.7%, P