Long-Term Health Symptoms and Sequelae Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection: An Evidence Map

Juan Victor Ariel Franco (), Luis Ignacio Garegnani, Gisela Viviana Oltra, Maria-Inti Metzendorf, Leonel Fabrizio Trivisonno, Nadia Sgarbossa, Denise Ducks, Katharina Heldt, Rebekka Mumm, Benjamin Barnes and Christa Scheidt-Nave
Additional contact information
Juan Victor Ariel Franco: Institute of General Practice, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
Luis Ignacio Garegnani: Research Department, Instituto Universitario Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires C1199, Argentina
Gisela Viviana Oltra: Research Department, Instituto Universitario Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires C1199, Argentina
Maria-Inti Metzendorf: Institute of General Practice, Medical Faculty, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
Leonel Fabrizio Trivisonno: Department of Health Science, Universidad Nacional de La Matanza, Buenos Aires B1754JEC, Argentina
Nadia Sgarbossa: Department of Health Science, Universidad Nacional de La Matanza, Buenos Aires B1754JEC, Argentina
Denise Ducks: Department of Epidemiology and Health Monitoring, Robert Koch-Institute, 13353 Berlin, Germany
Katharina Heldt: Department of Epidemiology and Health Monitoring, Robert Koch-Institute, 13353 Berlin, Germany
Rebekka Mumm: Department of Epidemiology and Health Monitoring, Robert Koch-Institute, 13353 Berlin, Germany
Benjamin Barnes: Department of Epidemiology and Health Monitoring, Robert Koch-Institute, 13353 Berlin, Germany
Christa Scheidt-Nave: Department of Epidemiology and Health Monitoring, Robert Koch-Institute, 13353 Berlin, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 16, 1-13

Abstract: Post-COVID-19 conditions, also known as ‘Long-COVID-19’, describe a longer and more complex course of illness than acute COVID-19 with no widely accepted uniform case definition. We aimed to map the available evidence on persistent symptoms and sequelae following SARS-CoV-2 in children and adults. We searched the Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register and the WHO COVID-19 Global literature on coronavirus disease database on 5 November 2021. We included longitudinal and cross-sectional studies and we extracted their characteristics, including the type of core outcomes for post-COVID-19 conditions. We included 565 studies (657 records). Most studies were uncontrolled cohort studies. The median follow-up time was 13 weeks (IQR 9 to 24). Only 72% of studies were conducted in high-income countries, 93% included unvaccinated adults with mild-to-critical disease, only 10% included children and adolescents, and less than 5% included children under the age of five. While most studies focused on health symptoms, including respiratory symptoms (71%), neurological symptoms (57%), fatigue (54%), pain (50%), mental functioning (43%), cardiovascular functioning (40%), and post-exertion symptoms (28%), cognitive function (26%), fewer studies assessed other symptoms such as overall recovery (24%), the need for rehabilitation (18%), health-related quality of life (16%), changes in work/occupation and study (10%), or survival related to long-COVID-19 (4%). There is a need for controlled cohort studies with long-term follow-up and a focus on overall recovery, health-related quality of life, and the ability to perform daily tasks. Studies need to be extended to later phases of the pandemic and countries with low resources.

Keywords: long-COVID-19; COVID-19; evidence map (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/9915/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/9915/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:16:p:9915-:d:885976

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().