Research Information System
Indian Journal of Respiratory Care, vol.14, no.2, pp.78-86, 2025 (ESCI, Scopus)
Aims and background:Long COVID-19 is a condition in which persistent symptoms persist even months after COVID-19 infection, affecting millions of people. Long COVID-19 (LC) causes disruption of multiple tissue/organ symptoms. The aim was to compare the impact on functional capacity and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) levels of symptomatic LC patients 6–18 months after COVID-19 infection compared to asymptomatic individuals. Methods: The study included 70 participants (45 females and 25 males) who had COVID-19 infection 6–18 months previously. Participants were divided into two groups as symptomatic (n = 33) and asymptomatic (n = 37), according to the persistence of COVID-19 symptoms. PostCOVID-19 Functional Scale (PCFS) was used to determine activity limitation and functional capacity between the groups; SF-36 questionnaire was used to assess HRQoL; 6-minute walking test (6MWT) and 30-second sit-to-stand (30s-STS) test were used to assess functional capacity. Mean differences between the groups were analyzed using the independent samples t-test. Results: The 6MWT mean walking distance (p = 0.005) and 30s-STS mean value (p = 0.028) were significantly lower in the symptomatic group than in the asymptomatic group. Symptomatic participants had significantly lower mean scores in the physical function (p = 0.003), emotional role difficulties (p = 0.009), physical role difficulties (p = 0.001), general health (p = 0.006), and pain (p = 0.002) subdimension of the SF-36 compared to the asymptomatic group. Conclusion: This study emphasizes that the deterioration in quality of life and functional capacity is not limited to the acute phase but leads to a multisystemic and long-term health condition and emphasizes the need for long-term follow-up. Clinical trial registration number: NCT06528145.