ArticleFrontiers in epidemiology2023
The prolonged impact of COVID-19 on symptoms, health-related quality of life, fatigue and mental well-being: a cross-sectional study.
Article in Frontiers in epidemiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Health-related quality of life in COVID-19 patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis of EQ-5D studies.Health and quality of life outcomes · 2025Pooled it
- Effect of Long COVID-19: Self-Reported Questionnaires and Objective Olfactory and Gustatory Evaluations.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Opportunities and barriers in care for patients with post COVID-19 condition: a Delphi study among healthcare workers.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Identifying Long Covid phenotypes and their association with personal characteristics, healthcare use, and daily life burden: population-based study in Belgium.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Assessment of long COVID symptom burden in patients testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 at a nationwide retail pharmacy.PloS one · 2026Article
- Health-related quality of life assessed by EQ-5D among hospitalized pregnant and postpartum women with SARS-CoV-2 infection in Suzhou city.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Observational
- Review
- Neurologic Manifestations of Long COVID Disproportionately Affect Young and Middle-Age Adults.Annals of neurology · 2025Article
- Article
- Cardiorespiratory optimal point in post-COVID-19 patients: a cross-sectional study.Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Sao Paulo · 2024Article
- Gender differences in symptomatology, socio-demographic information and quality of life in Spanish population with long COVID condition: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2024Observational
- Impact of COVID-19 Infection on Health-Related Quality of Life, Work Productivity and Activity Impairment by Symptom-Based Long COVID Status and Age in the US.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: A subset of patients experience persisting symptoms after an acute COVID-19 infection, referred to as "post COVID-19 condition". This cross-sectional study aimed to compare symptoms, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), fatigue, mental well-being, and determinants of diminished HRQoL, between patients with post COVID-19 condition categorized by time since acute infection. Methods: We performed an online survey and analyzed responses of 10,194 adult respondents with a confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection, who experienced persisting symptoms ≥3 months after the initial infection. The most debilitating symptoms and health outcomes were studied separately for respondents 3-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-18, 19-24, and >24 months after acute infection. Results: At each time period, fatigue, sensory-processing problems, and concentration problems were the most debilitating symptoms reported by respondents, although the proportion of respondents who reported these symptoms differed significantly between time periods. Respondents 3-6 months post-acute infection had the lowest HRQoL (median EQ-5D utility score: 0.59), the highest fatigue level (median score: 110.0) and the highest proportion with a likely depressive disorder (32.4%), whereas respondents 13-18 months post-infection had the highest HRQoL (0.65), the lowest fatigue level (106.0), and the second lowest proportion with a likely depressive disorder (25.0%) ( Conclusion: Regardless of time since infection, respondents considered fatigue, sensory processing problems and concentration problems the most debilitating symptoms. They experienced a low HRQoL and severe fatigue, even more than two years after acute COVID-19 infection. Respondents 3-6 months post-infection had the worst health outcomes, whereas respondents 13-18 months post-infection had the best outcomes, indicating that, at least for a subgroup of patients, health status may improve over time.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.