Post-COVID Syndrome and health-related quality of life (HrQoL): A
prospective, population-based study
Abstract
Long-term changes in health-related quality of life (HrQoL) after
SARS-CoV-2 infection are common, but the causes and consequences of
these changes are not well understood. HrQoL was assessed using the
European Quality-of-Life-5-Dimensions-5-Level-Version (EQ-5D-5L) in
2,618 participants (56% female; aged 18–88 years) approximately 9
months (baseline) and 26 months (follow-up) after their first infection.
The results were compared to 40 different demographic and clinical
variables. A clinically important improvement in HrQoL was noted during
the observation period. At baseline, the number of remaining symptoms
from the infection (RS), fatigue (FACIT-Fatigue Scale), depressive
symptoms (PHQ-8), muscle pain, age, and anxiety (GAD-7) explained 43%
of the variance in HrQoL. At follow-up, fatigue, RS, depressive
symptoms, anxiety, and muscle pain explained 50% of the variance.
Although changes in fatigue, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and RS were
associated with a change in HrQoL, the predictive value of the variables
was virtually zero. The study suggests that HrQoL improves statistically
significantly during the observation period. However, the extent of
recovery is difficult to predict from concurrent changes in demographic
and clinical variables. Besides a high RS number, fatigue is the main
predictor of poor HrQoL after infection, followed by the presence of
depressive and anxiety symptoms.