One year after 246 COVID-19 survivors were treated in 1 of 11 intensive care units (ICUs) in the Netherlands, nearly 75% reported lingering physical symptoms, more than 26% said they had mental symptoms, and upwards of 16% still had cognitive symptoms, according to a study yesterday in JAMA.The prospective study was conducted among 246 patients 16 years and older admitted to an ICU from Mar 1 to Jul 1, 2020, and followed up to Jun 16, 2021.
Average participant age was 61.2 years, 71.5% were men, average body mass index was 28.0 kg/m2 (overweight), and average ICU stay was 18.5 days.The research team surveyed participants about physical symptoms using the Clinical Frailty Scale, fatigue using the Checklist Individual Strength, mental symptoms using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using the Impact of Event Scale, and cognitive symptoms using the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire-14 (score of 43 and up indicating cognitive symptoms).The results are part of the ongoing MONITOR-IC study, which is following recovered COVID-19 patients up to 5 years after they were admitted to an ICU.
The research is being led by Radboud University Medical Center researchers in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.Almost 60% had work-related problemsOne year after ICU release, 74.3% of respondents reported physical symptoms, while 26.2% reported mental symptoms (anxiety, 17.9%; depression, 18.3%; PTSD, 9.8%), and 16.2% said they had cognitive symptoms (39 people had scores of 43 or higher).The most commonly reported new physical problems were weakness (38.9%), joint stiffness (26.3%), joint pain (25.5%), muscle weakness (24.8%), muscle pain (21.3%), and shortness of breath (20.8%).Among all survivors, 30.6%