Health-Related Quality of Life Assessment in Post-Covid Patients: A Cross-Sectional Online Survey

Aims:

To compare the impact of covid-19 infection and its associated factors among various domains of quality of life (general health (GH), physical health (PH), mental health, and pain).

To determine the variation and it’s contributing factors to the quality of life (QoL).

To identify the most common persisting symptoms after covid-19 infection.

Study Design: Cross-sectional community based online survey.

Place and Duration of Study: Community-based online survey done for a period of 6 months (March 2021- September 2021) among patients who recovered from covid-19.

Methodology: A validated self-made questionnaire with informed consent was used to gather information on the patient’s demographics (age, gender, educational qualification, occupation, marital status, and risk factors) covid-19 details (vaccination, severity, and hospitalization details), persisting symptoms, andHealth Related Quality of Life (HRQoL).

The HRQoL questions with scored options were framed under four domains general health, physical health, mental health, and pain. A convenient sample of 120 participants was included in our study.

Results: The median and inter-quartile ranges were used to describe the HRQoL score. For normal data, Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) was used to investigate the relationship between the dependent and independent variables.MLR results demonstrated that risk factors, severity, and length of hospital stay were negatively associated with QoL.

For non-normal data, the Kruskal Wallis test (KWT) and Mann Whitney U (MWU) test were used to compare the effect of covid-19 and its associated factors among various domains of HRQoL. KWT and MWT showed that the ability to perform physical activity was highly impaired in most post-covid patients. Cough, myalgia, arthralgia, and headache were the significant persisting symptoms of covid-19, reported by our participants. IBM SPSS software version 28.0 was used for statistical analysis.

Conclusion: We conclude that health care intervention is needed to manage persisting symptoms and to improve HRQoL.