Hospitalised COVID patients do not feel fully recovered even after one year, claims study

A study has revealed that many patients who were admitted to the hospital due to COVID infection do not feel fully recovered even after a year. The study, which provides new insight into potential treatments, has found that Coronavirus causes short-term health problems but also has long-term effects. Meaning only one in three patients showed signs of full recovery after a year said Dr. Rachel Evans, who is the co-leads of the post-hospitalisation COVID-19 study – or Phos-Covid, reported The Guardian, citing a study report carried by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre.

The research team collected both self-reported and objective measures of health, including organ function and physical performance of 2,320 adult participants about five months after they were discharged from the hospital. Even after one year, more than 900 participants showed similar symptoms, and 807 of them had attended the previous follow-up. It was found in the research that 1 out of 10 patients showed signs of cognitive impairment, or "brain fog," even 12 months after they were discharged from the hospital after having had COVID.

Several COVID patients do not feel fully recovered a year later, claims study

The research team grouped participants into one of four "clusters": Very severe symptoms, severe symptoms, mild symptoms, and participants with severe "brain fog" and other moderate symptoms. Adults in the "mild" group category displayed four symptoms on average, while participants in the "very severe" group reported about 20. The researchers noted that there was little improvement or no change in any of the health conditions between five months and one year across the four clusters, while participants revealed that they experienced a significant drop in health quality after five months of COVID, and the impact was found to be heavier for more severe ongoing symptoms and then very little change again at one year. 

Researchers observation

However, the study did not reveal the cause of the ongoing symptoms but stressed the need to improve the physical and mental impairment in participants. It was observed that overweight female participants were not able to do some physical work, and the reported inflammatory proteins in their blood–compared with the mild group–were all linked to having very severe symptoms. Meanwhile, Chris Brightling, who is the chief investigator on the study and professor of respiratory medicine at the University of Leicester, said the experts are trying to find out whether autoimmunity could help or whether adding anti-inflammatory drugs could aid improvement.

Image: Unspalsh/ Representative Image