PL-LBA-2199

D. Sharma¹, H. Vaish¹

¹Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, School of Health Sciences, Kanpur, India

Background: Coronavirus Disease 19 (Covid-19) survivors may show persistent residual symptoms weeks to months after acute illness. Symptoms of Covid-19 may persist up to 12 months or more after hospital discharge. The recovery of motor function continues during the follow-up from 4 to 12 months. Furthermore, impairment in health-related quality of life was found in outpatients on long term. Negative impacts on ADLs has also been reported in the literature after recovery from COVID 19 on long-term. These data portend a public health challenge of massive scale and seek attention. Existing studies have focused on identifying problems in longer-term of COVID-19 survivors but to the best of our knowledge no study has documented data related to these factors in long-term in Indian population and there is scarcity of literature with respect to rehabilitation protocols to improve fatigue, functional capacity, and quality of life in such patients. Rehabilitation has played an important role in acute and ongoing phases and sequelae of COVID-19 cases. The effect of comprehensive rehabilitation need to be explored in such patients.

Purpose: The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of four weeks of comprehensive rehabilitation on fatigue, functional capacity, and quality of life in COVID‑19 survivors in long term.

Methods: Adult COVID 19 survivors of male and female genders aged 25-60 years with a real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain-reaction (RT-PCR) test-confirmed SARS-cov-2 infection in long-term were recruited for this single group pre-test post-test quasi experimental study by purposive sampling method. A total of twelve participants were screened based on the eligibility criteria. Volunteers were requested to provide informed consent. The demographic data, baseline assessment was recorded prior to intervention. Assessment of outcome measures was performed at baseline and after 4 weeks.
The outcomes assessed were functional capacity by calculating VO₂max using six-minute walk distance, fatigue (fatigue severity scale, Hindi version), and quality of life (EQ 5D 5L, Hindi version). Intervention was given for total duration of 4 weeks. The intervention included exercise training including strength, flexibility, and balance training; ground walking exercise, energy conservation-pacing, breathing exercises and education.

Results: The demographic data was presented as Mean + SD. The comparison of pretest and post-test data was done by using paired t-test. Level of significance was set as p < 0.05. There were no drop outs. The mean age of the participants was 31.37 + 5.71 years. There were significant differences in scores of VO₂max, fatigue severity and quality of life (p < 0.05) after 4 weeks of intervention.

Conclusions: Four weeks of comprehensive rehabilitation is effective in improving functional capacity, fatigue and quality of life among COVID-19 survivors in long-term. There is need for further multicenter studies with long-term follow up for stronger evidence.

Implications: According to present study, outpatient comprehensive rehabilitation shows positive effect on functional capacity and quality of life in COVID-9 survivors. The protocol included multifactorial components that can be adjusted to the characteristics of the COVID-19 survivors in long-term. The results from the present work may develop new body of knowledge specially in developing countries.

Funding acknowledgements: The project received funding from CV Raman minor project, Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, Kanpur, India

Keywords:
COVID-19 survivors
Quality of life
Rehabilitation

Topics:
COVID-19
Cardiorespiratory
Community based rehabilitation

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University

Committee: Institutional Ethics Committee, Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University

Ethics number: I.E.C.M.03/2022/06/PO3