Profile and interplay of mental health as well as physical health symptoms in post-COVID patients

Currently, no clinically relevant physiological markers of post-COVID exist, which stymies treatment development and rehabilitation efforts. Therefore, a monocentric cross-sectional study was conducted to characterize the long-term mental and physical health consequences of infection with SARS-COV-2. 156 participants were recruited as part of the voluntary post-COVID consultation hours at the BG Hospital Hamburg, Germany, after the insured persons were invited by the relevant statutory accident insurance providers. Overall, 34% of participants were unable to work. Based on German census data, poststratification was used to provide a profile of mental health and physical symptoms recorded in the long-COVID consultations. Although many characteristics were within the normal range, BMI values, limitations in physical role functioning, vitality issues, somatization, phobic anxiety, and psychoticism were borderline or slightly elevated. Furthermore, long-COVID patients with high BMI values, high medication counts, multiple ICD diagnoses, and secondary diagnoses tended to report poorer physical and mental health conditions. We also used a multivariate network approach to provide a comprehensive perspective of relationships between physical and mental health symptoms and identify the most influential symptoms to develop potential intervention routes. Notably, the number of months since the COVID-19 diagnosis was one of the most central elements of the multivariate network. Although people with a less recent COVID diagnosis tended to have more secondary diagnoses, they tended to report fewer sleep-related problems, less stress sensitivity, better physical functioning, and better overall quality of life, indicating that some symptoms may decrease with time. In addition to the number of months since the COVID diagnosis, other central elements of the multivariate network included physical functioning, social role functioning, phobic anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity, and decreased sleep, highlighting potential intervention routes. Overall, our results might be used to design future diagnostic, preventive, and rehabilitation long-COVID measures.