Abstract
Background: Covid-19 is a pro-inflammatory condition that can affect all organs in the body along with impact on behavioral health. In our study, we investigated long term effects of SARS-COV 2 infection in patients admitted at Veteran Hospital in Brooklyn NY from March 3rd, 2020 to May 31st, 2020. Patients were followed at different time intervals to evaluate the clinical and behavioral outcomes after SARS-COV 2 infection. Methods:We performed a retrospective study of SARS-COV 2 patients that were admitted in Brooklyn VA Harbor hospital between March-May 2020. Patients were tested with nasopharyngeal swab and only patients who tested positive with RT-PCR were included in the study. Patients were called via telehealth services to evaluate for new or persistent symptoms, re-hospitalizations and deaths post discharge from hospital. We followed these patients at 30, 60, 90 and 180 days after discharge to investigate their clinical as well as behavioral outcomes. Results: In a period of March, 2020 to end of May, 2020, 400 patients were diagnosed with COVID-19 in hospital. All 400 patients were included in the analysis. Almost half the patients were African Americans (n = 201, 50.2%). The rest of the participants were predominantly white (n =114, 28.5%), and Hispanic (n =71, 17.8%). The sample was predominantly male (n = 375, 93.7%). The average age of the sample was 67.8 years (SD = 14.16). Analysis of post-COVID symptoms revealed that 30 days after COVID, the most common symptoms by organ functioning type was associated with respiratory function (n = 124, 31.0%). For all other post evaluation dates, behavioral symptoms were the most common (60: n = 29, 7.2%; 90 n = 22, 5.5%; 180: n = 27, 6.8%). Conclusions: Post 30 days of onset of COVID 19 symptoms, majority of patients still had persistent respiratory system dysfunction, such as cough, shortness of breath, dyspnea on exertion. 89 patients died due to severe COVID during the 30-day period. Upon following the patients for 6 months, we observed that majority of the patients had new onset or ongoing mental/behavioral problems, such as anxiety, depression, nosophobia, followed by respiratory symptoms.
Keywords
COVID-19, Persistent symptoms, Primary endpoints, Secondary endpoints, Follow up.