Prevalence, Pattern and Functional Outcome of Post COVID-19 Syndrome in Older Adults

Abstract

Introduction COVID-19 pandemic has been shown to produce high infection rates, significant morbidity and mortality among older adults. A significant proportion of people who have recovered from acute COVID-19 illness seem to suffer from post COVID-19 syndrome. Post COVID-19 syndrome is thought to be a multisystem disease involving physical, functional, mental and psychological domains. This analysis tries to estimate the prevalence, pattern and functional outcomes of post COVID-19 syndrome in hospitalized older adults. Methods A prospective cohort study was done on 279 older adults who were discharged from our centre between August 1st, 2020 and November 30th 2020. Information was collected through a telephonic interview after 90 days of discharge from the hospital using a standard questionnaire by a trained physician. Collected data were analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 23.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). Results After 90 days of recovery, the most common symptoms prevalent in the study population were fatigue (8.9%) followed by cough (4.3%), breathlessness (1.8%), dizziness (1.4%), myalgia (1.1%), loss of smell and taste (0.8%) and chest discomfort (0.7%). The prevalence of risk of anxiety in the study population after 90 days of recovery was 7.5% while that of risk of depression was 12.2%. After 90 days of recovery, 66 (23.6%) patients reported the presence of at least one clinical feature while 9.3% had two or more clinical features. On comparing the mean activities of daily living (ADL) 5.58 (.795) and mean instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) 5.84 (1.49) before the illness and 90 days following recovery there was no statistical difference for the study population. Conclusion The prevalence of post COVID-19 syndrome in older adults is about 9.3%. The most common symptoms reported by older adults after 90 days following recovery were fatigue followed by cough and breathlessness. Most older adults retained their baseline functional status after 90 days of recovery from acute COVID-19.

Keywords: anxiety; covid-19; depression; elderly; older adults; postcovid syndrome.

Figure 1. Patient flow chart

Figure 2. Prevalence of various symptoms 90 days post recovery from acute COVID-19 among older adults (n = 279).