Epidemiology and clinical characteristics of patients after recovery from COVID-19 infection in Erbil government, Iraq
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15218/zjms.2022.014Keywords:
Post-COVID-19 syndrome, Case series study, Comorbidity, Erbil cityAbstract
Background and objective: Preliminary reports indicate some patients may develop a post-COVID-19 syndrome, in which they experience persistent symptoms after recovering from their initial illness. So, we investigated the persistent symptoms of patients after recovery from COVID-19 that attended a private clinic in Erbil city searching for care. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the demographic features of the patients, identify the clinical features of the patients after recovery and find associations between clinical and demographic features.
Methods: This is a case series of a private clinic study, which was done in Erbil city. We reviewed patients who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and were referred to the clinic from July 31st to December 1st, 2020, in Erbil, Iraq.
Results: In this study, 154 post-recovered COVID-19 patients who attended the center during the six months of the study were enrolled. The mean age of the patients significantly increased with increased severity (P <0.001). A significant statistical association was also found between marital and smoking status with the severity of post-COVID-19 in which married patients developed more severe cases than non-married patients (P = 0.03). Also, cigarette smokers developed less severe clinical features than non-smokers (P = 0.005). The most frequent comorbidity among patients was hypertension (23%), while the least comorbidity was stroke, hyperthyroidism, renal failure, migraine, and osteoarthritis (0.7%).
Conclusion: Significant statistical associations were found between the severity of the post-COVID-19 condition with many variables, including the mean age of the patients, marital status, and smoking status. The most frequent comorbidity was hypertension, and the least frequent was stroke.
Metrics
References
Merza MA, Haleem Al Mezori AA, Mohammed HM, Abdulah DM. COVID-19 outbreak in Iraqi Kurdistan: The first report characterizing epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and radiological findings of the disease. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews. 2020;14(4):547–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.047
Ashour HM, Elkhatib WF, Rahman M, Elshabrawy HA. Insights into the recent 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in light of past human coronavirus outbreaks. Pathogens. 2020; 9(3):186. https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens9030186
Chen N, Zhou M, Dong X, Qu J, Gong F, Han Y, et al. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of 99 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study. Lancet. 2020;395(10223):507–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30211-7
Holshue ML, DeBolt C, Lindquist S, Lofy KH, Wiesman J, Bruce H, et al. First case of 2019 novel coronavirus in the United States. N Engl J Med. 2020;382:929–36. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2001191
Salari N, Hosseinian-Far A, Jalali R, Vaisi-Raygani A, Rasoulpoor S, Mohammadi M, et al. Prevalence of stress, anxiety, depression among the general population during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Globalization and Health. 2020;16:57. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-020-00589-w
Rajesh T. Gandhi, John B. Lynch, Carlos delRio. Mild or Moderate Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2020;383:1757–66. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMcp2009249
Moriarty LF, Plucinski MM, Marston BJ, Kurbatova EV, Knust B, Murray EL, et al. Public health responses to COVID-19 outbreaks on cruise ships—worldwide, February–March 2020. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2020;69(12):347. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6912e3
Kimball A, Hatfield KM, Arons M, James A, Taylor J, Spicer K, et al. Asymptomatic and presymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections in residents of a long-term care skilled nursing facility—King County, Washington 2020. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 2020;69(13):377. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6913e1
Wei WE, Li Z, Chiew CJ, Yong SE, Toh MP, Lee VJ. Presymptomatic Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 — Singapore, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2020;69:411–15. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6914e1
He X, Lau EH, Wu P, Deng X, Wang J, Hao X, et al. Temporal dynamics in viral shedding and transmissibility of COVID-19. Nature Medicine. 2020;26(5):672–5. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0869-5
Chopra V, Flanders SA, O’Malley M, Malani AN, Prescott HC. Sixty-day outcomes among patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2021;174(4):576–8. https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-5661
Coronavirus TOCGGtDaTtN. Diagnosis and treatment protocol for novel coronavirus pneumonia (version 7). (Accessed June 21, 2021, at https://medium.com/@balajis/theofficial-chinese-government-guide-to-diagnosing-and-treating-the-novelcoronavirus-9d06868f8df4).
Gemelli Against COVID-19 Post-Acute Care Study Group. Post-COVID-19 global health strategies: the need for an interdisciplinary approach. Aging Clin Exp Res. 2020;32:1613–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-020-01616-x
Wu C, Chen X, Cai Y, Zhou X, Xu S, Huang H, et al. Risk factors associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome and death in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 pneumonia in Wuhan, China. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2020;180(7):934-43. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed2020.0994
El Sayed S, Shokry D, Gomaa SM. Post-COVID-19 fatigue and anhedonia: A cross-sectional study and their correlation to post-recovery period. Neuropsychopharmacology Reports. 2021;41(1):50–5. https://doi.org/10.1002/npr2.12154
Lawal AM, Alhassan EO, Mogaji HO, Odoh IM, Essien EA. Differential effect of gender, marital status, religion, ethnicity, education and employment status on mental health during COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria. Psychology, Health & Medicine. 2020;27(1):1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2020.1865548
Ahluwalia IB, Myers M, Cohen JE. COVID-19 pandemic: an opportunity for tobacco use cessation. Lancet Public Health. 2020;5(11):e577. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30236-X
Jackson SE, Brown J, Shahab L, Steptoe A, Fancourt D. COVID-19, smoking and inequalities: a study of 53 002 adults in the UK. Tobacco Control. 2021;30(e2):e111-21. http://doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2020-055933
Norden MJ, Avery DH, Norden JG, Haynor DR. National smoking rates correlate inversely with COVID-19 mortality. Med Rxiv. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.12.20129825
Lippi G, Henry BM. Active smoking is not associated with severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). European Journal of Internal Medicine. 2020;75:107–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejim.2020.03.014
Tobaiqy M, Qashqary M, Al-Dahery S, Mujallad A, Hershan AA, Kamal MA, et al. Therapeutic management of patients with COVID-19: a systematic review. Infection Prevention in Practice. 2020;2(3):100061. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infpip.2020.100061
Baradaran A, Ebrahimzadeh MH, Baradaran A, Kachooei AR. Prevalence of comorbidities in COVID-19 patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Archives of Bone and Joint Surgery. 2020;8(Suppl 1):247.
Sanyaolu A, Okorie C, Marinkovic A, Patidar R, Younis K, Desai P, et al. Comorbidity and its impact on patients with COVID-19. SN Comprehensive Clinical Medicine. 2020;2(8):1069–76. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42399-020-00363-4
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Ali Abdulatif Barzinji, Hamanajm Hamafaraj Jaff, Sherzad Ali Ismael, Ass. Prof. (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The copyright on any article published in Zanco J Med Sci is retained by the author(s) in agreement with the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
