More than 50 long-term effects of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Sandra Lopez-Leon, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Talia Wegman-Ostrosky, Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, Subdirección de Investigación básica, Ciudad de México, México.; Carol Perelman, National Autonomous University of Mexico; Rosalinda Sepulveda, Harvard University; Paulina Rebolledo, Emory University; Angelica Cuapio, Karolinska Institutet; Sonia Villapol, Houston Methodist Research Institute
• Language: English
• Date: 2021-08-09
• Publisher: Nature Portfolio
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95565-8
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Scientific Reports
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1
• Start Page: 16144
• End Page: 16144
• Grant/Funding Information: This article was funded by Houston Methodist Research Institute (S.V.).
• Keywords: Science & Technology - Other Topics; Science & Technology; Acute respiratory syndrome; Pulmonary function; Syndrome SARS; Multidisciplinary Sciences; Capacity; Impact
• Research Categories: Biology, Neuroscience; Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery; Health Sciences, Epidemiology; Health Sciences, Public Health

Abstract

COVID-19 can involve persistence, sequelae, and other medical complications that last weeks to months after initial recovery. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to identify studies assessing the long-term effects of COVID-19. LitCOVID and Embase were searched to identify articles with original data published before the 1st of January 2021, with a minimum of 100 patients. For effects reported in two or more studies, meta-analyses using a random-effects model were performed using the MetaXL software to estimate the pooled prevalence with 95% CI. PRISMA guidelines were followed. A total of 18,251 publications were identified, of which 15 met the inclusion criteria. The prevalence of 55 long-term effects was estimated, 21 meta-analyses were performed, and 47,910 patients were included (age 17–87 years). The included studies defined long-COVID as ranging from 14 to 110 days post-viral infection. It was estimated that 80% of the infected patients with SARS-CoV-2 developed one or more long-term symptoms. The five most common symptoms were fatigue (58%), headache (44%), attention disorder (27%), hair loss (25%), and dyspnea (24%). Multi-disciplinary teams are crucial to developing preventive measures, rehabilitation techniques, and clinical management strategies with whole-patient perspectives designed to address long COVID-19 care.