PROMIS scales for assessment of the impact of post-COVID syndrome: A Cross Sectional Study

  1. Ravindra Ganesh
  2. Aditya K Ghosh
  3. Mark A Nyman
  4. Ivana T Croghan
  5. Stephanie L Grach
  6. Christopher V Anstine
  7. Ryan T Hurt

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Abstract

The post-COVID syndrome is estimated to occur in up to 10% of patients who have had COVID-19. This condition manifests as lingering symptoms which persist for weeks to months after resolution of the acute illness. The syndrome is poorly understood and efforts are just beginning to appropriately characterize the symptoms expressed by this population. We present a population of patients with persistent symptoms as measured by a select number of PROMIS surveys (i.e. fatigue, sleep, pain, physical functioning, and social roles). We believe this to be the first use of the PROMIS survey data collected in this population and one of the first to attempt to measure social dysfunction secondary to the post-COVID syndrome. Our patient population is notably younger (30.9% were between 40-59 years of age), with a majority being female (60.5%). They also reported deficits in social roles (34.5%), and greater fatigue (14.7%), and pain (15.9%); along with a variety of disease severity ranging from asymptomatic to requiring admission. Despite this increased heterogeneity of population, the symptomatology of the post-COVID syndrome is preserved. These findings differ significantly from previously published data that demonstrated that outpatients can have duration of post-COVID syndrome similar to those who were hospitalized.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.05.25.21257817: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: This retrospective study was approved by the Mayo Clinic Institutional Review Board.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Cell Line AuthenticationAuthentication: In particular, the PROMIS questionnaires for fatigue11-13, pain interference14-16, and social roles17 have been validated for syndromes such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    We do however recognize limitations inherent to our cross-sectional study design related to generalizability and inability to assess causation. Another limitation is that there is likely some response bias in that those with more severe symptoms were more likely to respond. The electronic nature of the survey also selects for those with access to the internet and an active portal account which does select against those with low health literacy and socio-economic status. This survey was also delivered in English which may have selected against those with limited English proficiency; however the proportion of participants with limited English proficiency mirrors the population distribution of the Midwest states. The final response rate, however, was 14.7%, which is on the upper end of standard survey response rates for electronic surveys.19

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2021.05.25.21257817v1 on medRxiv
  3. Version published to 10.1177/21501327211030413