Post-COVID Syndrome symptoms, functional disability and clinical severity phenotypes in hospitalised and non-hospitalised individuals.., 2021, Sivan

Full title: Post-COVID Syndrome symptoms, functional disability and clinical severity phenotypes in hospitalised and non-hospitalised individuals: a cross-sectional evaluation from a community COVID rehabilitation service.

Abstract

Background
There is currently limited information on clinical severity phenotypes of symptoms and functional disability in Post-COVID Syndrome (PCS)

Methods
A purposive sample of 370 PCS patients from a dedicated community COVID-19 rehabilitation service were assessed using the C19-YRS (COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale) where each symptom or functional difficulty was scored on a 0-10 Likert scale and also compared with before infection. Phenotypes based on symptom severity were extracted to identify any noticeable patterns. Correlation between symptom severity, functional disability and overall health was explored.

Results
Mean age was 47 years, with 237 (64%) female. Median duration of symptoms was 211 days (interquartile range 143 to 353). Symptoms and functional difficulties increased substantially when compared to before infection. Three distinct severity phenotypes of mild (n=90), moderate (n=186) and severe (n=94) were identified where severity of individual symptoms was of similar severity within each phenotype. Symptom scores were strongly positively correlated with functional difficulty scores (0.7, 0.6 to 0.7) and moderately negatively correlated with overall health (-0.4, -0.3 to -0.5).

Conclusions
This is the first study reporting on severity phenotypes in a largely non-hospitalised PCS cohort. Severity phenotypes might help stratify patients for targeted interventions and planning of care pathways.

Open access, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmv.27456