Two years after hospital release, nearly 20% of COVID-19 survivors in Wuhan, China, reported persistent, new-onset, or worsening symptoms, finds a study published yesterday in JAMA Network Open.

The researchers conducted phone interviews of 1,864 COVID-19 survivors 1 and 2 years after release from one of two hospitals in Wuhan from Feb 12 to Apr 10, 2020, a period dominated by the wild-type virus and preceding the availability of vaccines. Participants also completed a symptom questionnaire and underwent a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease assessment test (CAT) at both time points.

8% had new-onset or worsening symptoms

The median patient age was 58.5 years, 49.7% were men, 27.1% had been severely ill, and the median hospital stay was 14 days. While hospitalized, 95.3% of patients had at least one COVID-19 symptom, and 71.9% received oxygen therapy (0.8% of whom received mechanical ventilation), and 1.9% were admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU).

At 2 years, 19.8% of patients reported long-COVID symptoms, including 12.0% with lingering symptoms and 7.8% with new-onset or worsening symptoms.

The most common persistent symptoms were fatigue, chest tightness, anxiety, shortness of breath, and muscle pain, while common new-onset symptoms were fatigue, anxiety, chest tightness, and productive cough. At both time points, fatigue was the most common symptom but decreased from 26.9% at 1 year to 10.3% at 2 years.

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