ANXIETY LEVEL, EXERCISE CAPACITY AND QUALITY OF LIFE POST MILD COVID-19 INFECTION: PRELIMINARY FINDINGS

F.T. Mirza¹, M.N. Kamarudin², M.A. Ibrahim³

¹Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Centre for Physiotherapy Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences, Puncak Alam, Malaysia, ²Hospital Al-Sultan Abdullah UiTM, Physiotherapy Department, Puncak Alam, Malaysia, ³Hospital Al-Sultan Abdullah UiTM, Respiratory and Sleep Unit, Internal Medicine Department, Faculty of Medicine, Puncak Alam, Malaysia

Background: Mild COVID-19 patients were self-managed at community level due to its mild symptoms. Unfortunately, a proportion of these patients do suffer post COVID-19 syndrome. Due to lack of designated follow-up assessments and awareness, majority of them suffered in silence and alone. Furthermore, there are limited information regarding COVID-19 sequelae in this group.

Purpose: To describe post-acute COVID-19 sequalae of mild COVID-19 patients.

Methods: A cohort of UiTM healthcare staffs with mild COVID-19 infection were enrolled during home quarantine and followed-up upon returning to work with following assessments; measurements of anxiety level (GAD-7), fatigue (FACIT-F), exercise capacity (6MWT and 1 min STS) and quality of life (EQ-5D-5L).

Results: Thirty individuals with female majority (73%), age (Mean ±SD) 34±7 years and BMI of 27±7 kg/m² were recruited on 11±2 days post COVID-19 symptom onset. None of them have pre-existing medical illness. Common symptoms were cough (50%), sputum production (47%) and runny nose (27%). More than half (53%) of the total participants described mMRC dyspnoea scale >1. Regarding fatigue symptom, 9 (30%) scored < 30 on FACIT-F indicating severe fatigue. Their 1 min STS and 6MWD were 20±6 repetitions (45±13%pred) and 348±59m (58±10%pred), respectively. Significant desaturation was observed during both 1 min STST (27%) and 6MWT (40%). As high as 70% of the participants have anxiety with a GAD-7 score between 1 (minimal) to 14 (moderate). Six (20%) reported between slight and moderate problem performing daily activities and health status was rated at 82±13 with 33% felt their health to be between 50 and 75 on a 0-100 scale in EQ-5D-5L.

Conclusions: A significant proportion of mild COVID-19 patients remained symptomatic and experienced functional impairment post-acute infection. These important findings need to be deliberated in larger and prospective studies.

Implications: Exploring post-acute COVID-19 sequalae of mild COVID-19 patients would benefit both healthcare providers as well as patients. The finding my facilitate decision making among healthcare providers in determining the types of patients with mild COVID infection who may require follow-up or who may potentially ended-up with lung impairment. If management is required but no proper follow-up was done, this gap in knowledge may cause a delay in delivering required treatment to these patients and lead to a cluster of people who did not recover post COVID infection. This is even more important given that patients with mild COVID infection are usually expected to return to work between day 8th to 11th (depending of their vaccination status) with no assessment taken to determine whether these patients had recovered from their acute infection and fit to return to work.

Funding acknowledgements: The author(s) received no financial support for the research.

Keywords:
COVID-19
Recovery
Rehabilitation outcomes

Topics:
Cardiorespiratory
COVID-19
Disability & rehabilitation

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)

Committee: UiTM Research Ethics Committee

Ethics number: REC/06/2022 (ST/FB/6)