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. 2022 Oct 13:379:e071050.
doi: 10.1136/bmj-2022-071050.

Post-acute sequelae of covid-19 six to 12 months after infection: population based study

Raphael S Peter  1 , Alexandra Nieters  2 , Hans-Georg Kräusslich  3 , Stefan O Brockmann  4 , Siri Göpel  5 , Gerhard Kindle  2 , Uta Merle  6 , Jürgen M Steinacker  7 , Dietrich Rothenbacher  1 , Winfried V Kern  8 ; EPILOC Phase 1 Study Group
Collaborators, Affiliations

Post-acute sequelae of covid-19 six to 12 months after infection: population based study

Raphael S Peter et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objectives: To describe symptoms and symptom clusters of post-covid syndrome six to 12 months after acute infection, describe risk factors, and examine the association of symptom clusters with general health and working capacity.

Design: Population based, cross sectional study SETTING: Adults aged 18-65 years with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between October 2020 and March 2021 notified to health authorities in four geographically defined regions in southern Germany.

Participants: 50 457 patients were invited to participate in the study, of whom 12 053 (24%) responded and 11 710 (58.8% (n=6881) female; mean age 44.1 years; 3.6% (412/11 602) previously admitted with covid-19; mean follow-up time 8.5 months) could be included in the analyses.

Main outcome measures: Symptom frequencies (six to 12 months after versus before acute infection), symptom severity and clustering, risk factors, and associations with general health recovery and working capacity.

Results: The symptom clusters fatigue (37.2% (4213/11 312), 95% confidence interval 36.4% to 38.1%) and neurocognitive impairment (31.3% (3561/11 361), 30.5% to 32.2%) contributed most to reduced health recovery and working capacity, but chest symptoms, anxiety/depression, headache/dizziness, and pain syndromes were also prevalent and relevant for working capacity, with some differences according to sex and age. Considering new symptoms with at least moderate impairment of daily life and ≤80% recovered general health or working capacity, the overall estimate for post-covid syndrome was 28.5% (3289/11 536, 27.7% to 29.3%) among participants or at least 6.5% (3289/50 457) in the infected adult population (assuming that all non-responders had completely recovered). The true value is likely to be between these estimates.

Conclusions: Despite the limitation of a low response rate and possible selection and recall biases, this study suggests a considerable burden of self-reported post-acute symptom clusters and possible sequelae, notably fatigue and neurocognitive impairment, six to 12 months after acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, even among young and middle aged adults after mild infection, with a substantial impact on general health and working capacity.

Trial registration: German registry of clinical studies DRKS 00027012.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at https://www.icmje.org/disclosure-of-interest/ and declare: support from the Baden-Württemberg Federal State Ministry of Science and Art and the German pension fund (“Deutsche Rentenversicherung”) Baden-Württemberg for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
Co-occurrence network of symptom clusters 6-12 months after acute infection. Outer circles represent individual symptoms. Circle area represents proportion of patients with that symptom. These are linked to inner circles, which represent symptom clusters. Width of link lines again represents proportion of patients with that symptom. Circle area for clusters represents proportion of patients with at least one symptom from that cluster. Central links between symptom clusters represent co-occurrence of symptom clusters. Link width represents degree of co-occurrence. Based on data from 11 536 participants. Only symptoms not present before acute SARS-CoV-2 infection were considered
Fig 2
Fig 2
Prevalence of symptom clusters 6-12 months after acute infection (only symptoms not present before acute SARS-CoV-2 infection) and associated loss (%) and population attributable loss (%) of general health (n=10 268; average loss 11.5%, 95% CI 11.2% to 11.7%) and working capacity (n=10 324; average loss 10.7%, 10.4% to 11.0%)
Fig 3
Fig 3
Prevalence (%) of post-covid syndrome according to different criteria for possible case definitions based on self-reported (new) symptoms, Fatigue Assessment Score (FAS), and recovered general health and working capacity
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