Abstract
Background: The empirical basis for a quantitative assessment
of the disease burden imposed by long-COVID is currently scant. We aimed
to assess the disease burden caused by long-COVID in Japan.
Methods: We conducted a cross sectional self-report
questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was mailed to 530 eligible
patients, who were recovered from acute COVID-19 in April 2021. Answers
were classified into two groups; participants who have no symptom and
those who have any ongoing symptoms that lasted longer than four weeks
at the time of the survey. We compared health-related quality of life
scores estimated by the EQ-5D-3L questionnaire between these two groups
after adjusting basic characteristics of the participants by propensity
score matching.
Results: 349 participants reported no symptoms and 108 reported
any symptoms at the time of the survey. The participants who reported
any symptoms showed a lower value on a Visual Analogue Scale (median 70
[IQR 60-80]) and on the EQ-5D-3L (median 0.81 [IQR 0.77-1.0])
than those reporting no symptoms (median 85 [IQR 75-90] and 1.0
[IQR 1.0-1.0], respectively). After adjusting for background
characteristics, these trends did not change substantially (Visual
Analog Scale: median 70 [IQR 60-80] vs 80 [IQR 77-90], EQ-5D-3L:
median 0.81 [IQR 0.76-1.0] vs 1.0 [IQR 1.0-1.0]).
Conclusions: Due to their long duration, long-COVID symptoms
represent a substantial disease burden expressed in impact on
health-related quality of life.
Keywords: COVID-19; disease burden; Quality of life; long-COVID
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