Background: The long coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) syndrome is defined as persistent physical, cognitive and/or psychological symptoms that continue for more than 12 weeks following the acute illness. Methods: In all, 2,646 patients were randomly selected from all individuals who were diagnosed with COVID-19. They were interviewed so as to assess the persistence of symptoms and health-related quality of life. Blood investigations were also taken. Results: The median (interquartile range (IQR)) age was 44 (31–55) years and 48.6% were males. Five per cent had been hospitalised. Follow-up was for a median of 142 days (IQR: 128–161). Twenty-two per cent of the participants claimed that they were feeling worse than they felt before COVID-19. The most common symptoms were anosmia, ageusia, fatigue, shortness of breath, headaches and myalgia. The Short Form-36 questionnaire revealed that 16.4% felt that they were somewhat worse than in the previous year and that hospitalised patients fared worse in all domains except for role-emotional. New-onset diabetes was similar to the rate of undiagnosed diabetes in the background population. Hospitalised patients had significantly higher liver transaminases, fasting plasma glucose, glycated haemoglobin, uric acid, red cell distribution width, mean platelet volume, triglyceride levels and troponin levels but lower estimated glomerular filtration rate and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol at follow-up. Discussion: A significant proportion of patients were symptomatic at a median follow-up of 142 days and felt worse than 1 year previously. Hospitalised patients had more biochemical and haematological abnormalities compared to non-hospitalised ones, suggesting ongoing inflammation in subjects who were more severely affected by the disease.

Introduction: Long COVID syndrome is defined as physical, cognitive and psychological symptoms that persist for over 12 weeks following the acute illness and are not explained by other diagnosis. Aim: To assess medical and health-related quality of life (HR QOL) outcomes at medium-term follow-up in subjects previously infected with COVID-19. Methods: 2646 patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 infection were randomly selected. They were interviewed to assess for symptoms and HR QOL using a post-COVID questionnaire and Short Form Survey (SF-36) respectively. Blood investigations were taken. Results: The median age was 44 years (IQR 31-55), 49% were males. 5% were hospitalised and 1% intubated. Smokers comprised 17%, 10% were ex-smokers. 17% suffered from hypertension, 11% hyperlipidaemia, ischaemic heart disease was present in 2%, heart failure in 1%, obesity in 18%, chronic kidney disease in 0.2%, chronic respiratory disease in 7% and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) in 7%. Median time to follow up was 142 days (IQR 128-161). 22% of participants claimed they felt worse than before. Most common symptoms were anosmia (55%), abnormal taste (53%), fatigue (23%), dyspnoea (23%), headache (20%) and myalgia (15%). The SF-36 survey showed that hospitalized patients fared worse in all domains except for role-emotional. New onset DM was diagnosed in 50 patients, similar to the rate of undiagnosed DM in the population. Hospitalised patients had significantly higher liver transaminases, FPG, HbA1c, uric acid, RDW, MPV, triglyceride levels and troponin levels but lower eGFR and HDL-cholesterol at follow-up. The differences in RDW, MPV, triglyceride, GGT and FPG remained significant after adjusting for confounders (Table 1). Conclusions: A significant proportion of post-COVID patients were symptomatic at medium-term follow-up. Hospitalised patients had more biochemical and haematological abnormalities, suggesting ongoing inflammation in those more severely affected.