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SummaryBackgroundThere are currently no effective pharmacological or non-pharmacological interventions for Long-COVID. To identify potential therapeutic targets, we focussed on previously described four recovery clusters five months after hospital discharge, their underlying inflammatory profiles and relationship with clinical outcomes at one year.MethodsPHOSP-COVID is a prospective longitudinal cohort study, recruiting adults hospitalised with COVID-19 across the UK. Recovery was assessed using patient reported outcomes measures (PROMs), physical performance, and organ function at five-months and one-year after hospital discharge. Hierarchical logistic regression modelling was performed for patient-perceived recovery at one-year. Cluster analysis was performed using clustering large applications (CLARA) k-medoids approach using clinical outcomes at five-months. Inflammatory protein profiling from plasma at the five-month visit was performed.Findings2320 participants have been assessed at five months after discharge and 807 participants have completed both five-month and one-year visits. Of these, 35·6% were female, mean age 58·7 (SD 12·5) years, and 27·8% received invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV). The proportion of patients reporting full recovery was unchanged between five months 501/1965 (25·5%) and one year 232/804 (28·9%). Factors associated with being less likely to report full recovery at one year were: female sex OR 0·68 (95% CI 0·46-0·99), obesity OR 0·50 (95%CI 0·34-0·74) and IMV OR 0·42 (95%CI 0·23-0·76).Cluster analysis (n=1636) corroborated the previously reported four clusters: ‘very severe’, ‘severe’, ‘moderate/cognitive’, ‘mild’ relating to the severity of physical, mental health and cognitive impairments at five months in a larger sample. There was elevation of inflammatory mediators of tissue damage and repair in both the ’very severe’ and the ’moderate/cognitive’ clusters compared to the ’mild’ cluster including interleukin-6 which was elevated in both comparisons. Overall, there was a substantial deficit in median (IQR) EQ5D-5L utility index from pre-COVID (retrospective assessment) 0·88 (0·74-1·00), five months 0·74 (0·60-0·88) to one year: 0·74 (0·59-0·88), with minimal improvements across all outcome measures at one-year after discharge in the whole cohort and within each of the four clusters.InterpretationThe sequelae of a hospital admission with COVID-19 remain substantial one year after discharge across a range of health domains with the minority in our cohort feeling fully recovered. Patient perceived health-related quality of life remains reduced at one year compared to pre-hospital admission. Systematic inflammation and obesity are potential treatable traits that warrant further investigation in clinical trials.FundingUKRI & NIHRResearch in ContextEvidence before this studyWe systematically searched PubMed and Embase databases for large studies reporting one-year follow-up data for hospitalised COVID-19 patients published between January 1, 2021 and November 7, 2021, without language restrictions. Search terms related to COVID-19, hospitalisation and long-term follow-up were used. A large prospective cohort study from Wuhan, China (n = 1276) showed that 49% of patients reported at least one persistent symptom during a follow-up clinic visit at 12 months post COVID-19; no significant improvement in exercise capacity was observed between six- and 12-month visits. Another two large cohort studies in China (n = 2433) and Spain (n = 1950) with one-year follow-up data from telephone interviews showed that 45% and 81% of patients reported at least one residual COVID-19 symptom, respectively. However, no previous studies have compared the trajectories of COVID-19 recovery in patients classified by different clinical phenotypes, and there are no large studies investigating the relationship between systemic inflammation and ongoing health impairments post COVID-19.Added value of this studyIn a diverse population of adults post-hospital admission with COVID-19, our large UK prospective multi-centre study reports several novel findings: the minority felt fully recovered at one year with minimal recovery from five months across any health domain; female sex and obesity are associated with being less likely to feel fully recovered at one year; several inflammatory mediators were increased in individuals with the most severe physical, mental health, and cognitive impairments compared to individuals with milder ongoing impairments.Implications of all the available evidenceBoth pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions are urgently needed to improve the ongoing burden following hospitalisation for COVID-19 both for individuals and healthcare systems; our findings support the use of a precision medicine approach with potential treatable traits of systemic inflammation and obesity.

Cardiovascular disease is a common comorbidity and cause of mortality in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A better understanding of mechanisms of cardiovascular risk in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients is needed to improve clinical outcomes. We hypothesized that such patients have increased arterial stiffness, wave reflections, and subclinical atherosclerosis compared with controls and that these findings would be independent of smoking status and other confounding factors. A total of 458 patients with a diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 1657 controls (43% were current or ex-smokers) with no airflow limitation were matched for age, sex, and body mass index. All individuals underwent assessments of carotid–femoral (aortic) pulse wave velocity, augmentation index, and carotid intima–media thickness. The mean age of the cohort was 67±8 years and 58% were men. Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease had increased aortic pulse wave velocity (9.95±2.54 versus 9.27±2.41 m/s; P P P