7 in 10 Covid-19 patients struggle to fully recover: UK study

Seven in 10 people who were hospitalised for Covid-19 have not gained full recovery even after five months of getting discharged from hospitals, a new study has revealed. The study conducted in the UK suggests Covid-19 survivors continued to face mental as well as physical health issues. One in five also faced a new disability. A similar number of people also faced difficulty carrying out their jobs, some quit while others had to change jobs due to health complications.

The majority of people who faced such complications were middle-aged white women, who suffered from Covid-19. This group also had one or two health comorbidities like diabetes, asthma or heart-related ailments. The study comprised 1,077 participants who were infected with Covid-19 and discharged between March and November 2020. The categorisation of the participants was -- 67 percent white ethnicity people, 36 per cent women and 50 with two or more comorbidities.

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A follow up after five months revealed only 29 percent of them felt they had fully recovered from coronavirus, while around 90 per cent felt at least one symptom that they had not experienced before Covid. "Only 29% felt fully recovered, 20% had a new disability, and 19% experienced a health-related change in occupation," the study titled 'Physical, cognitive and mental health impacts of COVID-19 following hospitalisation' said.

The ten most commonly reported symptoms were 'aching...muscles (pain)', 'fatigue', 'physical slowing down', 'impaired sleep quality, 'joint pain or swelling', 'limb weakness','breathlessness', 'pain', 'short-term memory loss' and 'slowing down in thinking'. "The number of persistent symptoms was highest in those with pre-existing comorbidities, but high also in those without pre-existing comorbidity," the study, which has not been peer-reviewed, said.

Those who had recovered also faced mental health issues, including anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The participants were divided into four groups -- Cluster 1 (who had very severe mental and physical health impairment); Cluster 2 (severe mental health issues); Cluster 3 (moderate); and Cluster 4 (mils mental and physical health impairment). As per the study, these four clusters were identified with different severities of mental and physical health impairment: very severe (17%), severe (21%), moderate with cognitive impairment (17%), and mild (46%), with 3%, 7%, 36% and 43% feeling fully recovered, respectively.

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