Most people hospitialised with COVID-19 have at least one symptom after 6 months: Wuhan cohort

A study by Huang and colleagues and published in the Lancet provides important results on longer-term outcomes from COVID-19 and importantly highlights the longer recovery times that are now starting to get more attention. [1]

This study includes results from 1,733 adults (from a total of nearly 2500) who were discharged from Jin Yin-tan Hospital in Wuhan, China, between 7 January and 29 May 2020.

Median age was 57 years (IQR: to ). Follow-up visits were done from 16 June to 3 September 2020, and the median follow-up time was 186 days (IQR: to ). This included subset of 390 with results from lung functions tests and 94 with antibody serology.

At follow-up, 76% of patients (1,265/1,655) reported at least one ongoing symptom. The most common were fatigue or muscle weakness (63%, 1,038/1,655), sleep difficulties (26%, 437/1,655) and anxiety or depression (23%, 367/1,733).

Antibody responses were significantly lower over time in the subset of participants with these results, with 96% vs 58 testing seropositive in acute vs follow-up samples and with median titres of 19 vs 10, respectively.

Reduced kidney was reported by 13% (107/822) of participants with previous normal kidney function based on eGFR levels being above vs below 90 mL per 1.73 m².

In 349 participants who completed the lung function test, those with more severe illness commonly had reduced lung function. There also reported slightly worse outcomes in a six-minute walking test: 29% at severity scale 5–6 walked less than the lower limit of the normal range (compared with 24% at scale 3, and 22% for scale 4).

However, only 4% of participants had been admitted to ICU during their hospitalisation, therefore underreporting the long-term outcomes from the most severe infections.