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
. 2022 Jan 19;39(1):159-167.
doi: 10.1093/fampra/cmab076.

Post-acute and long-COVID-19 symptoms in patients with mild diseases: a systematic review

Sophie A M van Kessel  1 , Tim C Olde Hartman  1 , Peter L B J Lucassen  1 , Cornelia H M van Jaarsveld  1
Affiliations

Post-acute and long-COVID-19 symptoms in patients with mild diseases: a systematic review

Sophie A M van Kessel et al. Fam Pract. .

Abstract

Background: It is expected that GPs are increasingly confronted with a large group of patients with symptoms persisting three weeks after initial symptoms of a mild (managed in the outpatient setting) COVID-19 infection. Currently, research on these persistent symptoms mainly focuses on patients with severe infections (managed in an inpatient setting) whereas patients with mild disease are rarely studied.

Objective: The main objective of this systematic review was to create an overview of the nature and frequency of persistent symptoms experienced by patients after mild COVID-19 infection.

Methods: Systematic literature searches were performed in Pubmed, Embase and PsychINFO on 2 February 2021. Quantitative studies, qualitative studies, clinical lessons and case reports were considered eligible designs.

Results: In total, nine articles were included in this literature review. The frequency of persistent symptoms in patients after mild COVID-19 infection ranged between 10% and 35%. Symptoms persisting after a mild COVID-19 infection can be distinguished into physical, mental and social symptoms. Fatigue was the most frequently described persistent symptom. Other frequently occurring persistent symptoms were dyspnoea, cough, chest pain, headache, decreased mental and cognitive status and olfactory dysfunction. In addition, it was found that persisting symptoms after a mild COVID-19 infection can have major consequences for work and daily functioning.

Conclusion: There is already some evidence that symptoms of mild COVID-19 persist after 3 weeks in a third of patients. However, there is a lack of data about symptoms persisting after 3 months (long-COVID). More research is needed to help GPs in managing long-COVID.

Keywords: Long-Covid; outpatients; post-acute Covid-19; primary health care; recovery of function; systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flow diagram of study selection (From: Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG, The PRISMA Group (2009). Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement. PLoS Med 6(7): e1000097. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed1000097).(21)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ge H, Wang X, Yuan Xet al. . The epidemiology and clinical information about COVID-19. Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis 2020; 39(6): 1011–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): situation report, 51. World Health Organisation; 2020, (accessed on 11 March 2020).
    1. Zaim S, Chong JH, Sankaranarayanan V, Harky A. COVID-19 and multiorgan response. Curr Probl Cardiol 2020; 45(8): 100618. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Buitrago-Garcia D, Egli-Gany D, Counotte MJet al. . Occurrence and transmission potential of asymptomatic and presymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections: a living systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS Med 2020; 17(9): e1003346. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gavriatopoulou M, Korompoki E, Fotiou Det al. . Organ-specific manifestations of COVID-19 infection. Clin Exp Med 2020; 20(4): 493–506. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types