Below you will find a summary of the article “Socioeconomic conditions influence health-related quality of life during recovery from acute SARS-CoV-2 infection,” published in the August 2024 issue of Infectious diseases by Benatti et al.
Millions of post-acute COVID-19 sequelae (PASC) result in slow and incomplete recovery from acute COVID-19 illness.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to examine how prevailing socioeconomic status (SES) affects delay in recovery from illness.
They analyzed a database of 1,536 patients with COVID-19 admitted during the first wave and followed up in a multidisciplinary interventional care. Those identified after 12 weeks and with severe acute complications were excluded. The investigation was conducted to monitor the disadvantaged SES in terms of recovery outcomes, including symptoms, HRQoL according to the SF-36 scale, posttraumatic stress disorder according to the IES-R scale, and lung structural damage due to impaired CO diffusion and diffuse capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide (DLCO).
The result showed 825 patients with a mean age of 59 years; 60.2% were men, 499 (approximately 60% were hospitalized) and 27 (3.3%) in intensive care. At follow-up, 337 (40.9%; 95% CI 37.5–42.2%) reported persistent symptoms, 256 had posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (31%, 95% CI 28.7–35.1%) and 147 (19.6%, 95% CI 17.0–22.7%) of them had reduced DLCO. A multivariable model analysis showed that disadvantaged SES is associated with lower health-related quality of life, which affects physical health (Restrictions on physical activities: OR = 0.65; 95% CI = 0.47 to 0.89; P= 0.008; AUC = 0.74) and Physical pain (OR = 0.57; 95% CI = 0.40 to 0.82; P=0.002; AUC= 0.74), with no association between SES and other outcomes.
They concluded that pre-existing socioeconomic disadvantages compromised recovery from COVID-19 and that clinical assessments should be included to evaluate symptoms in addition to SES and HRQoL measures.
Source: bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-024-09502-x
