Joint Investigation of 2-Month Post-diagnosis IgG Antibody Levels and Psychological Measures for Assessing Longer Term Multi-Faceted Recovery Among COVID-19 Cases in Northern Cyprus

This article has been Reviewed by the following groups

Read the full article See related articles

Abstract

Following the outbreak of COVID-19, multidisciplinary research focusing on the long-term effects of the COVID-19 infection and the complete recovery is still scarce. With regards to long-term consequences, biomarkers of physiological effects as well as the psychological experiences are of significant importance for comprehensively understanding the complete COVID-19 recovery. The present research surveys the IgG antibody titers and the impact of COVID-19 as a traumatic experience in the aftermath of the active infection period, around 2 months after diagnosis, in a subset of COVID-19 patients from the first wave (March-April 2020) of the outbreak in Northern Cyprus. Associations of antibody titers and psychological survey measures with baseline characteristics and disease severity were explored, and correlations among various measures were evaluated. Of the 47 serology tests conducted for presence of IgG antibodies, 39 (83%) were positive. We identified trends demonstrating individuals experiencing severe or critical COVID-19 disease and/or those with comorbidities are more heavily impacted both physiologically and mentally, with higher IgG titers and negative psychological experience compared to those with milder disease and without comorbidities. We also observed that more than half of the COVID-19 cases had negative psychological experiences, being subjected to discrimination and verbal harassment/insult, by family/friends. In summary, as the first study co-evaluating immune response together with mental status in COVID-19, our findings suggest that further multidisciplinary research in larger sample populations as well as community intervention plans are needed to holistically address the physiological and psychological effects of COVID-19 among the cases.

Article activity feed

  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.27.20178160: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: All subjects were informed about both components of the study, provided informed consent acknowledging voluntary participation, option to withdraw from study at any time, and the confidentiality of their antibody results and their responses to the survey.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot 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: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    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.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.