Scrutiny of Symptoms After 30 Days in Patients With COVID-19 Diagnosis

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 has wide range of symptoms from mild symptoms to severe respiratory failure. The length of these clinical pictures and the long-term effects of the disease are not yet clear. The aim of this study was to describe symptom characteristics of COVID-19 patients at least 30 days after the date of diagnosis. Materials and Methods: The study included 129 patients who were admitted to our hospital at least 30 days prior to COVID-19 compatible clinical findings and found to be positive for SARS-CoV-2 PCR in nasopharyngeal swab. The patients’ presenting symptoms were questioned 30 days after the diagnosis of COVID-19 and their responses were analyzed with a questionnaire conducted at the polyclinic controls or phone call. Results: One hundred and twenty-nine patients with a mean age of 53.8 years were included in our study, with 70 female patients and 59 male patients, and 67 patients had at least one comorbidity. 43% of the patients were hospitalized due to COVID-19 while 7% of the patients were followed in the intensive care unit. The most common symptoms were fatigue (67%), myalgia (65%), back pain (38%), cough (31%) and shortness of breath (26%) respectively. Conclusion: While the primary complaints of the patients, when diagnosed with COVID-19, were seen as respiratory system symptoms; it was observed that the symptoms that continued at least 1 month after the diagnosis were mostly muscle aches and fatigue. The inclusion of outpatients who were discharged within 30 days and the low number of patients with a history of admission to intensive care is considered as a limitation of the study.

Keywords

• covid-19
• symptom