Diem, Lara; Fregolente-Gomes, Livia; Warncke, Jan D; Hammer, Helly; Friedli, Christoph; Kamber, Nicole; Jung, Simon; Bigi, Sandra; Funke-Chambour, Manuela; Chan, Andrew; Bassetti, Claudio L; Salmen, Anke; Hoepner, Robert (2022). Fatigue in Post-COVID-19 Syndrome: Clinical Phenomenology, Comorbidities and Association With Initial Course of COVID-19. Journal of central nervous system disease, 14, p. 11795735221102727. Sage 10.1177/11795735221102727
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Introduction
Post-COVID-19 syndrome affects approximately 10-25% of people suffering from COVID-19 infection, irrespective of initial COVID-19 severity. Fatigue is one of the major symptoms, occurring in 30-90% of people with post-COVID-19 syndrome. This study aims at describing factors associated with fatigue in people with Post-COVID-19 seen in our newly established Post-Covid clinic.
Methods
This retrospective single center study included 42 consecutive patients suffering from Post-COVID-19 syndrome treated at the Department of Neurology, University Hospital Bern, between 11/2020 and05/2021. Clinical phenomenology of Post-COVID-19 syndrome with a special focus on fatigue and risk factor identification was performed using Mann-Whitney U Test, Pearson Correlation, and Chi-Quadrat-Test.
Results
Fatigue (90.5%) was the most prevalent Post-COVID-19 symptom followed by depressive mood (52.4%) and sleep disturbance (47.6%). Fatigue was in mean severe (Fatigue severity scale (FSS) mean 5.5 points (95% Confidence interval (95CI) 5.1 - 5.9, range .9 - 6.9, n = 40), and it was unrelated to age, COVID-19 severity or sex. The only related factors with fatigue severity were daytime sleepiness and depressed mood.
Conclusion
Fatigue is the main symptom of the Post-COVID-19 syndrome in our cohort. Further studies describing this syndrome are needed to prepare the healthcare systems for the challenge of treating patients with Post-COVID-19 syndrome.