Comparison of fatigue, quality of life and pulmonary function in recovered COVID-19 patients and healthy individuals

Patients who have recovered from COVID-19 suffer from lasting symptoms such as numerous physical and mental disorders. It seems that these conditions can disturb the activities of daily living. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare fatigue, quality of life and pulmonary function in recovered COVID-19 patients and healthy individuals.

This experimental study was conducted on 25 recovered COVID-19 patients, discharged from Qom hospitals, Iran, in 2022, and 25 healthy people. The inclusion criteria for healthy people were a negative PCR test result and the age range of 35 to 59 years, and for recovered COVID-19 patients were at least one week of hospitalization due to COVID-19. Fatigue severity was assessed using the Fatigue Severity Questionnaire (FSS), quality of life through 36-question questionnaire (Sf-36) and pulmonary function through spirometry. The comparison of the mean data of the two groups was done using Mann-Whitney U test and independent t-test by SPSS-27 software.

Factors including fatigue (P<0.001), Overall Quality of Life (P>0.001), physical health (P<0.001), mental health (P=0.002), physical function subscale (P<0.001), limitation due to physical function (P<0.001), energy and vitality (P=0.000), social function (P<0.001), pain (P<0.001) and also a pulmonary function of FVC (P<0.001) and FEV1 (P<0.001) were significantly different between the recovered and healthy groups. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the FEV1/FVC ratio (P=0.170) and the limitations due to emotional problems (P=0.816) and mental health (P=0.159).

Compared to healthy people, recovered COVID-19 patients are more likely to have reduced quality of life, increased fatigue, and impaired pulmonary function.