Safety and Efficacy of Pulmonary Rehabilitation for Long COVID Patients Experiencing Long-Lasting Symptoms

Espérance Moine (), Virginie Molinier, Adriana Castanyer, Amandine Calvat, Guillaume Coste, Antonin Vernet, Audrey Faugé, Perrine Magrina, Joan Lluis Aliaga-Parera, Nicolas Oliver, François Alexandre and Nelly Heraud
Additional contact information
Espérance Moine: Direction de la Recherche Clinique et de l’Innovation en Santé, Clariane, 34700 Lodève, France
Virginie Molinier: Direction de la Recherche Clinique et de l’Innovation en Santé, Clariane, 34700 Lodève, France
Adriana Castanyer: Clinique du Souffle La Solane, Inicea, 66340 Osséja, France
Amandine Calvat: Clinique du Souffle La Vallonie, Inicea, 34700 Lodève, France
Guillaume Coste: Clinique du Souffle La Solane, Inicea, 66340 Osséja, France
Antonin Vernet: Clinique du Souffle La Solane, Inicea, 66340 Osséja, France
Audrey Faugé: Clinique du Souffle La Vallonie, Inicea, 34700 Lodève, France
Perrine Magrina: Clinique du Souffle La Vallonie, Inicea, 34700 Lodève, France
Joan Lluis Aliaga-Parera: Clinique du Souffle La Solane, Inicea, 66340 Osséja, France
Nicolas Oliver: Direction de la Recherche Clinique et de l’Innovation en Santé, Clariane, 34700 Lodève, France
François Alexandre: Direction de la Recherche Clinique et de l’Innovation en Santé, Clariane, 34700 Lodève, France
Nelly Heraud: Direction de la Recherche Clinique et de l’Innovation en Santé, Clariane, 34700 Lodève, France

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 2, 1-16

Abstract: Due to the high prevalence and persistence of long COVID, it is important to evaluate the safety and efficacy of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) for patients who experience long-lasting symptoms more than six months after initial COVID-19 onset. Enrolled patients were admitted for a four-week in-patient-PR due to long COVID symptoms (n = 47). The safety of PR was confirmed by the absence of adverse events. Symptom-related outcomes were evaluated pre- and post-PR with significant score changes for: 6 min walking distance (61 [28 to 103] m), quality of life (mental Short Form-12: 10 [6 to 13], and physical: 9 [6 to 12]), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (1 [0 to 3]), fatigue (MFI-20: −19 [−28 to −8]), dyspnea (DYSPNEA-12: −7 [−9 to −2] and mMRC; −1 [−1 to 0]), Nijmegen questionnaire (−8 [−11 to −5]), anxiety and depression (HADS:−4 [−5 to −2] and −2 [−4 to −1], respectively) and posttraumatic stress disorder checklist scale (−8 [−12 to −4]). At the individual level, the percentage of symptomatic patients for each outcome decreased, with a high response rate, and the number of persistent symptoms per patient was reduced from six at PR initiation to three at the end of the program. Our results show that in-PR is safe and efficient at decreasing long-lasting symptoms experienced by long COVID patients at more than six months after initial disease onset.

Keywords: long COVID; post-COVID-19 syndrome; multidisciplinary intervention; treatability; MCIDs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/2/242/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/2/242/ (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:21:y:2024:i:2:p:242-:d:1341729

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 ().