Results:
Data from a total of 332 participants were analyzed. Male patients were
overly represented with a total of 65.7% (n=218) participants and
remaining 34.3% (n=114) were female. Results reveal, most patients were
hypoxic during admission at the hospital for COVID-19, with a median
SPO2 of 88.0 % (85.0, 91.0). Diabetes mellitus (41%, n=136) and
hypertension (45.4%, n=151) were two of the most prevalent
comorbidities found among participants. On interview, 62.9% (n=207) had
been suffering from some form of fatigue, and only 37% (n=125) of
participants were free from initial fatigue and were back to their
pre-hospital admission level activities (Table-1) . Among the
fatigued patients, 79.71% (n=165) reported improvement in their
perceived fatigue level. Another 15.46% (n=32) were experiencing
similar fatigue level as reported during their initial diagnosis at
hospital. Finally, 4.83% (n=10) reported that their fatigue level has
deteriorated since leaving the hospital. On testing, statistically
significant association was observed between fatigue and age (p=0.000),
hypertension (RR: 1.51; CI: 1.15-1.99; p=0.002), diabetes mellitus (RR:
1.45; CI: 1.08-1.95; p=0.010), ischemic heart disease (RR: 2.04; CI:
1.15-3.64; p=0.011), on admission SpO2 (p=0.000), on admission serum
ferritin (p=0.000), d-dimer (p=0.000), CRP (p=0.000), and Hb% (p=0.019)(Table-1) .
Table-1: Association between fatigue and demographic, clinical
and laboratory variables