Abstract

Introduction: According to WHO, 3 months from the onset of COVID-19 with symptoms and that last for at least 2 months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis is considered as post COVID-19 syndrome or long COVID.
Objective: Objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence various symptoms in post COVID syndrome/long COVID cases within 3 months from the recovery or infection.
Methods: This multicentric hospital based cross sectional study was done among 113 Long COVID cases of 567 previously infected COVID-19 subjects at COVID clinics in Telangana (Hyderabad, Nalgonda) and Madya Pradesh (Indore), India for 1 year during January to December 2021. Data was entered into Microsoft exceland results were displayed by numbers and frequencies only.
Results: Among long COVID study population the mean age was 43 years, with male predominance (57.5%) and more than half of subjects were having co-morbidities, hypertension being the commonest (35.4%). Majority had moderate illness (40.7%) managed at home (60.2%) initially. Fatigue (67.3%), body pains (38.1%) and shortness of breath (29.2%) were common post COVID symptoms.
Conclusion: Present study found that, increasing age, co-morbidities and initial severity of the disease are found to be risk factors for post COVID complications.