Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jan;27(1):89-95.
doi: 10.1016/j.cmi.2020.09.023. Epub 2020 Sep 23.

Clinical sequelae of COVID-19 survivors in Wuhan, China: a single-centre longitudinal study

Qiutang Xiong  1 , Ming Xu  1 , Jiao Li  1 , Yinghui Liu  1 , Jixiang Zhang  1 , Yu Xu  2 , Weiguo Dong  3
Affiliations

Clinical sequelae of COVID-19 survivors in Wuhan, China: a single-centre longitudinal study

Qiutang Xiong et al. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2021 Jan.

Abstract

Objectives: To describe the prevalence, nature and risk factors for the main clinical sequelae in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) survivors who have been discharged from the hospital for more than 3 months.

Methods: This longitudinal study was based on a telephone follow-up survey of COVID-19 patients hospitalized and discharged from Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, China before 1 March 2020. Demographic and clinical characteristics and self-reported clinical sequelae of the survivors were described and analysed. A cohort of volunteers who were free of COVID-19 and lived in the urban area of Wuhan during the outbreak were also selected as the comparison group.

Results: Among 538 survivors (293, 54.5% female), the median (interquartile range) age was 52.0 (41.0-62.0) years, and the time from discharge from hospital to first follow-up was 97.0 (95.0-102.0) days. Clinical sequelae were common, including general symptoms (n = 267, 49.6%), respiratory symptoms (n = 210, 39%), cardiovascular-related symptoms (n = 70, 13%), psychosocial symptoms (n = 122, 22.7%) and alopecia (n = 154, 28.6%). We found that physical decline/fatigue (p < 0.01), postactivity polypnoea (p= 0.04) and alopecia (p < 0.01) were more common in female than in male subjects. Dyspnoea during hospitalization was associated with subsequent physical decline/fatigue, postactivity polypnoea and resting heart rate increases but not specifically with alopecia. A history of asthma during hospitalization was associated with subsequent postactivity polypnoea sequela. A history of pulse ≥90 bpm during hospitalization was associated with resting heart rate increase in convalescence. The duration of virus shedding after COVID-19 onset and hospital length of stay were longer in survivors with physical decline/fatigue or postactivity polypnoea than in those without.

Conclusions: Clinical sequelae during early COVID-19 convalescence were common; some of these sequelae might be related to gender, age and clinical characteristics during hospitalization.

Keywords: COVID-19; Clinical sequelae; Early recovery; SARS-CoV-2; Survivors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study sample.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Li Q., Guan X., Wu P., Wang X., Zhou L., Tong Y. Early transmission dynamics in Wuhan, China, of novel coronavirus–infected pneumonia. N Engl J Med. 2020;382:1199–1207. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Demertzis Z.D., Dagher C., Malette K.M., Fadel R.A., Bradley P.B., Brar I. Cardiac sequelae of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a clinical case series. Eur Heart J Case Rep. 2020 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Guan W.J., Ni Z.Y., Hu Y., Liang W.H., Ou C.Q., He J.X. Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 in China. N Engl J Med. 2020;382:1708–1720. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang D., Hu B., Hu C., Zhu F., Liu X., Zhang J. Clinical characteristics of 138 hospitalized patients with 2019 novel coronavirus–infected pneumonia in Wuhan, China. JAMA. 2020;323:1061–1069. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen N., Zhou M., Dong X., Qu J., Gong F., Han Y. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study. Lancet. 2020;395:507–513. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms