Wu Horng-Shiuann, Pathak Dola, Hall Mandy, Given Charles W
College of Nursing, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Human Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA.
Res Nurs Health. 2025 Apr;48(2):168-178. doi: 10.1002/nur.22437. Epub 2025 Jan 7.
While the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has declined, many survivors continue to suffer debilitating symptoms, such as fatigue, pain, and foggy thoughts. Sustained COVID-19 symptoms, or Long COVID, challenge health care resources and economic recovery. This article describes the methodology, implementation, and results of an observational study investigating how time since diagnosis may affect lingering symptoms among the adult COVID-19 population. The descriptive distribution and overall symptoms experience by individuals' characteristics were examined. Random samples from two patient cohorts (n = 147 in 2020-2021 and n = 137 in 2021-2022) were recruited from a COVID-19 patient registry in mid-Michigan. Samples were drawn from a pool of patients ≥ 3 months following their COVID-19 diagnosis. Overall symptoms experience (number, severity, interference) was self-reported using a comprehensive symptom inventory. The findings showed that 66% of the 2020-2021 cohort and 47% of the 2021-2022 cohort reported ≥ 1 lingering symptom with an average of 11.2 (±3.0) and 8.9 (±3.3) months, respectively, after COVID-19 diagnosis. Females reported significantly more symptoms (p = 0.018), higher symptom severity (p = 0.008) and interference (p = 0.007) compared to males. Compared to patients admitted to emergency departments, outpatients reported significantly lower symptom severity (p = 0.020) and less symptom interference (p = 0.018). Our analyses showed that a moderate proportion (43%) of adults remained symptomatic nearly a year after COVID-19 infection and time since diagnosis did not affect symptom experience in either cohort. Female sex and admission setting are important factors to consider for managing and studying Long COVID.
虽然2019冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行已有所缓解，但许多幸存者仍遭受着疲劳、疼痛和思维模糊等使人衰弱的症状。持续的COVID-19症状，即长期新冠症状，对医疗资源和经济复苏构成了挑战。本文描述了一项观察性研究的方法、实施过程和结果，该研究调查了自确诊以来的时间如何影响成年COVID-19患者群体中持续存在的症状。研究考察了个体特征的描述性分布和总体症状体验。从密歇根州中部的一个COVID-19患者登记处招募了两个患者队列的随机样本（2020 - 2021年为n = 147，2021 - 2022年为n = 137）。样本取自COVID-19确诊后3个月以上的患者群体。使用一份综合症状清单对总体症状体验（数量、严重程度、干扰程度）进行自我报告。研究结果显示，在2020 - 2021年队列中，66%的患者报告有≥1种持续症状，在COVID-19确诊后平均持续11.2（±3.0）个月；在2021 - 2022年队列中，47%的患者报告有≥1种持续症状，确诊后平均持续8.9（±3.3）个月。与男性相比，女性报告的症状明显更多（p = 0.018）、症状严重程度更高（p = 0.008）以及干扰程度更大（p = 0.007）。与急诊科收治的患者相比，门诊患者报告的症状严重程度明显更低（p = 0.020）且症状干扰更少（p = 0.018）。我们的分析表明，相当一部分（43%）成年人在COVID-19感染近一年后仍有症状，且自确诊以来的时间对两个队列中的症状体验均无影响。性别和就诊情况是管理和研究长期新冠症状时需要考虑的重要因素。
