Publication:

Sociodemographic and clinical profile of patients attending a post-COVID-19 rehabilitation program: a multicenter cross-sectional study

Background Neurological and musculoskeletal manifestations related to COVID-19 are prevalent and can persist beyond 12 weeks, characterizing the “Long COVID”. This paper aims to describe the sociodemographic and clinical profile reporting the prevalence of cognitive, emotional and motor symptoms of patients seen at 2 Brazilian-Rehabilitation hospitals.

Methods Multicentric, descriptive and observational, cross-sectional study, carried out by reviewing the electronic medical records of patients, from March to September 2021.

Results 611 individuals participated in the study (mean age: 53.4 years), 58.4% were female. Three or more pre-existing comorbidities were reported by 38.6%. Three or more persistent symptoms were present in 77.3%. Neuropsychiatric (65.0%) and memory/attention impairments (55.6%); pain (53.7%) and fatigue (51.6%) were the most prevalent. The majority had the post COVID-19 functional status scale (PCSF) score to ≥2 (66.9%). There was no association between infection severity and reported functional status. Most of the participants did not show risk of fall at Timed Up and Go Test (TUG) (68.6%), and 93.9% presented an average walking speed of ≥ 0.80 m/s. Analyzing the COVID-19 severity and TUG test results, it was identified that severely or critical affected patients had moderate to high risk of fall (P=0,02). There were associations between functional status and gait speed (P=0,01) as well as with the presence of fatigue as a persistent symptom (p=0,03).

Conclusions The study contributes to the knowledge of sociodemographic and clinical profile of patients who had COVID-19, showing persistent symptoms and the impact of Long-COVID on the individual's function.