Study reveals impact on recovery from COVID-19
The majority of survivors who left hospital following COVID-19 did not fully recover five months after discharge and continued to experience negative impacts on their physical and mental health, as well as ability to work, a study has reported.
The PHOSP-COVID study analysed 1,077 patients who were discharged from hospital between March and November 2020 following an episode of COVID-19. These included 56 patients at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Researchers found that each participant had an average of nine persistent symptoms. The ten most common symptoms reported were: muscle pain, fatigue, physical slowing down, impaired sleep quality, joint pain or swelling, limb weakness, breathlessness, pain, short-term memory loss and slowed thinking.
Patients were also assessed for mental health. The study reports that over 25% of participants had clinically significant symptoms of anxiety and depression and 12% had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at their five-month follow-up.
Of the 67.5% of participants who were working before COVID, 17.8% were no longer working, and nearly 20% experienced a health-related change in their occupational status.
