Severity of self-reported symptoms and psychological burden 6-months after hospital admission for COVID-19: a prospective cohort study

Objectives: Few studies have reported clinical COVID-19 sequelae six months (M6) after hospital discharge, but none has studied symptom severity. Methods: Prevalence and severity of 7 symptoms were estimated until M6 using the self-administered influenza severity scale in COVID-19 hospitalized patients enrolled in the French COVID cohort. Factors associated with severity were assessed by logistic regression. Anxiety, depression and health-related quality of life (HRQL) were also assessed. Results: At M6, among the 324 patients (median age 61 years, 63% men, 19% admitted to intensive care during the acute phase), 187/324 (58%) reported at least one symptom, mostly fatigue (47%) and myalgia (23%). Symptom severity was scored, at most, mild in 125 (67%), moderate in 44 (23%) and severe in 18 (10%). Female gender was the sole factor associated with moderate/severe symptom reporting (OR = 1.98, 95%CI = 1.13-3.47). Among the 225 patients with psychological assessment, 24 (11%) had anxiety, 18 (8%) depressive symptoms, and their physical HRQL was significantly poorer than the general population (p = 0.0005). Conclusion: Even if 58% of patients reported >= 1 symptom at M6, less than 7% rated any symptom as severe. Assessing symptoms severity could be helpful to identify patients requiring appropriate medical care. Women may require special attention. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases.