Half of Covid patients have symptoms after a year: Study

Beijing: Around half the people hospitalised with Covid-19 experience at least one persistent symptom up to 12 months after the infection, according to a study published in The Lancet journal on Friday.

The research on 1,276 patients from Wuhan, China, shows that around one in three people still experienced shortness of breath after 12 months, while lung impairments persisted in some patients, especially those who had experienced the most severe illness with Covid-19.

Covid-19 survivors were found to be less healthy than people from the wider community who had not been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19.

"Our study is the largest to date to assess the health outcomes of hospitalised Covid-19 survivors after 12 months of becoming ill," said Professor Bin Cao, from China-Japan Friendship Hospital.

"While most had made a good recovery, health problems persisted in some patients, especially those who had been critically ill during their hospital stay," Cao said. The study findings suggest that recovery for some patients will take longer than one year, and this should be taken into account when planning delivery of healthcare services post-pandemic.

A previous study by the same team on 1,733 hospitalised Covid-19 survivors found that around three-quarters of patients had persistent health problems after six months of infection. The new study analysed data from patients who had been discharged from hospital between January 7 and May 29, 2020. The patients underwent detailed health checks at six and 12 months to assess any ongoing symptoms and their health-related quality of life.

These included face-to-face questionnaires, physical examinations, lab tests, and a six-minute walking test to gauge patients' endurance levels. The average age of patients included in the study was 57 years. Patient outcomes were tracked for an average of 185 days and 349 days.

Many symptoms resolved over time, regardless of the severity of initial Covid-19 disease, the researchers said. However, the proportion of patients still experiencing at least one symptom after one year fell from 68 per cent at six months to 49 per cent at 12 months, they said. This decrease was observed regardless of the severity of Covid-19 the patients had experienced when hospitalised.