United States: Those who had developed COVID-19 were up to four times more likely to suffer from post-COVID-19 fatigue than those who had not been exposed to the virus, the study found, published on Wednesday.
More about the study
Researchers collected data from electronic health records obtained from the University of Washington among 4,500 patients confirmed with the disease between February 2020 and February 2021.
The study group was followed for a median period of 11.4 months and their health data was compared with data of more than 9000 patients without Covid-19 but with the same characteristics, reported ABC News.
Findings of the study
Fatigability was noted in 9 of the 16 COVID cases, which was remarked by the scientists. It is worth noting that among patients diagnosed with COVID-19 the incidence of occurrence of fatigue was set at the level of 10.2 per person-year, while the incidence of the development of chronic fatigue was established at the level of 1.8 per person-year.
This is a measurement of the number of there, multiplied by, i.e., how long the study for each patient lasts.
It was discovered that there was a higher risk of fatigue in the patients who tested positive for COVID-19 compared to the patients test negative. These patients also have 4.3 times more chance of getting chronic fatigue in the follow-up period as released by the latest ABC News.
Who is more vulnerable to fatigue due to Covid?
Fatigue after having COVID-19 was evident more in women, old age people, and those who had other health conditions such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and a history of mood disorders.
No strong evidence of ethnic and racial disparities was detected when it comes to fatigue after COVID-19 except for a slightly lower incidence of fatigue among Black people as shown in the study.
Scientists observed that COVID-19 patients who developed fatigue after the disease had a larger number of cases resulting in hospitalization or death compared to those without fatigue.
As ABC News reported, among 434 people with COVID-19 who started to feel fatigued, 25.6 percent of them represented, those who were hospitalized more than one time, during the follow-up period, while 13.6 percent of 4,155 people without fatigue were not hospitalized.
Moreover, COVID-19 patients suffering from fatigue had a greater possibility of death. In the follow-up period, 5.3% died with fatigue compared with 2.3% without fatigue.
The authors of the study stated, “Our data indicate that COVID-19 is associated with a significant increase in new fatigue diagnoses, and physicians should be aware that fatigue might occur or be newly recognized [more than] one year after acute COVID-19,” as reported by ABC News.
More study is required for better understanding- Experts
They further stated, “Future study is needed to better understand the possible association between fatigue and clinical outcomes.”
The authors further added that the high rates of fatigue, “reinforce the need for public health actions to prevent infections, to provide clinical care to those in need, and to find effective treatments for post–acute COVID-19 fatigue,” reported by ABC News.
They also mentioned that the team aims to help people with long COVID increase their awareness about fatigue and other long COVID symptoms which helps them to get prompt care they need, to minimize the risk of long COVID.