1. Frequency, persistence and relation of disease symptoms, psychosomatic comorbidity and daily life impairment after COVID-19: a cohort study in general practice.
- Author
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Hapfelmeier, Alexander, Donhauser, Jan, Teusen, Clara, Eck, Stefanie, and Schneider, Antonius
- Subjects
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SOMATOFORM disorders , *RISK assessment , *FAMILY medicine , *T-test (Statistics) , *STATISTICAL significance , *MULTIPLE regression analysis , *PRIMARY health care , *MEDICALLY unexplained symptoms , *MULTIVARIATE analysis , *CHI-squared test , *DESCRIPTIVE statistics , *LONGITUDINAL method , *ODDS ratio , *PSYCHOSOMATIC disorders , *QUALITY of life , *STATISTICS , *ANALYSIS of variance , *COMPARATIVE studies , *SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC factors , *DATA analysis software , *COVID-19 , *COMORBIDITY , *ACTIVITIES of daily living , *DISEASE risk factors - Abstract
Background: Long-lasting symptoms with a possible relation to psychosomatic comorbidity have been described following COVID-19. However, data is sparse in general practice. The trial's objective was to investigate the time-dependent frequency of disease symptoms and relation to psychosomatic comorbidity and daily life impairment (DLI). Methods: Comparative cohort study of patients reporting a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and uninfected controls in general practice. Participants were recruited in 14 general practices in the greater Munich area. Data collection was questionnaire based with a 12 months follow-up. Descriptive statistics, multivariable regression and bivariate correlations were used for analysis. Results: A total of n = 204 cases infected up to 42 months ago (n = 141 Omicron, n = 63 earlier variants), and n = 119 controls were included. Disease symptoms were substantially more prevalent in cases (55–79% vs. 43% within one year of infection). This difference also appeared in the multivariable analysis adjusting for socio-demographics and psychosomatic comorbidity with odds ratios (OR) of 4.15 (p < 0.001) and 3.51 (p = 0.054) for the cohorts with Omicron or earlier variants infection (vs. controls), respectively. It was persistent with earlier variants (OR 1.00 per month, p = 0.903), while a decreasing trend was observed for Omicron (OR 0.89 per month, p < 0.001). DLI was especially correlated with fatigue (r = 0.628). Conclusion: DLI, psychosomatic comorbidity and independently increased disease symptoms require holistic treatment of the patient in general practice according to the bio-psycho-social model. A key role in restoring the daily life capability may be attributed to the symptom fatigue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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