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