Long-term symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection in a cohort of hospital employees: duration and predictive factors

  1. Rosalie Gruber
  2. María Verónica Montilva Ludewig
  3. Christina Weßels
  4. Gerlinde Schlang
  5. Svenja Jedhoff
  6. Swetlana Herbrandt
  7. Frauke Mattner

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Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the frequency, duration and patterns of long-term coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms and to analyse risk factors for long-lasting COVID-19 sequelae among a cohort of hospital employees (HEs).

Methods

We conducted a survey regarding persistent COVID-19 related symptoms with all HEs from three medical centres in Cologne, Germany, who were tested SARS-CoV-2 PCR positive from March 2020 until May 2021. Duration of symptoms and possible risk factors for protracted COVID-19 course were analysed.

Results

Of 221 included HEs, a number of 104 HEs (47.1%) reported at least one persisting symptom for more than 90 days after initial SARS-CoV-2 detection. Each one cycle higher initial Ct value significantly increased the chances of overcoming symptoms (odds ratio [OR] 1.05; 95% confidence interval (95%CI) 1.01–1.09; p = 0.019). The occurrence of breathlessness within the first ten days (OR 7.89; 95%CI 1.87–41.43; p = 0.008), an initial Ct value under 30 (OR 3.36; 95%CI 1.22–9.94; p = 0.022) as well as the occurrence of anosmia or ageusia within the first ten days (OR 3.01; 95%CI 1.10–8.84; p = 0.037) showed a statistically significant association with increased odds of illness duration over 90 days.

Conclusion

About half of the HEs suffered from long lasting symptoms over 90 days after almost entirely mild acute COVID-19. Predictive factors could possibly be used for early treatment to prevent development of long-term symptoms after COVID-19 in future.

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.1186/s12879-023-08710-1
  2. Version published to 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2812977/v1 on Research Square
  3. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2022.03.22.22272770: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: Ethical clearance: This study was approved by the ethics committee of the Witten/Herdecke University (S-273/2021).
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    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:
    As an additional limitation of our study, it must be mentioned that we only asked about subjectively perceived symptoms that were not necessarily confirmed by a physician. However, the work of Roessler et al. confirms our findings and shows that also even more severe conditions that were diagnosed by a trained physician occur more often in the COVID-19 cohort than in the control cohort.17 Recently, Cohen et al. detected an increase of 11% for SARS-CoV-2 infected patients over the age of 65 for other sequelae.24 In our questionnaire, we explicitly asked only about new onset symptoms. Nevertheless, it must be mentioned that we can not exclude that some employees may have overstated their reported symptoms. The socioeconomic impact of long lasting symptoms after a SARS-CoV-2 infection was early described by the surrogate sick leave of working people in Sweden. Median leave time from work was 35 days and 9% had sick leaves longer than four months.10 For both medical and socioeconomic reasons, predictors for long lasting symptoms are essential. Predictors were first identified by the Swedish study investigating sick leaves, which were older age and sick leaves within the year prior to infection in a first rough analysis.10 We identified a significant association between the occurrence of ageusia, anosmia or breathlessness during the first ten days, first Ct value <30 as well as a definitely nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and a prolonged illness duration over 90 days. Through ...

    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.

    About SciScore

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  4. Version published to 10.1101/2022.03.22.22272770 on medRxiv