INTRODUCTION: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), after two years since the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in Wuhan, China, more than 500 million people have been contaminated and over 6 million people died due the consequences of the infection. With the large number of recovered patients, some post-infection consequences were noticed, but are still uncertain. Post COVID-19 syndrome occurs in patients that were infected by SARS-CoV-2 and are still presenting symptoms, even after 2 months from discharge, that cannot be explained by other diagnosis. OBJECTIVES: Several studies have shown that most patients still present with sequelae of the illness even after the acute phase of the infection. The most common symptoms being fatigue/ muscle weakness, dyspnea, post-exertional malaise, cognitive dysfunctions, sensorimotor symptoms, and headaches. Previous studies have shown that the persistence of at least one symptom leads to a lower physical and mental quality compared to those who were asymptomatic. Furthermore, patients who required intensive care have reported lower quality of life compared with those in ward admission. Considering this topic, the primary aim of this study was to describe and analyze persistent symptoms of patients that were hospitalized due to COVID-19 infection after 30, 90 and 180 days from ICU discharge and assess the patients’ health satisfaction and health related quality of life in these three moments. Secondarily, we evaluated the patients’ functionality through the WHODAS 2.0 (36 items) survey in 30 days after the ICU discharge. This is a multicentric prospective cohort study of COVID-19 survivors discharged from six hospitals in Curitiba, Paraná between September 2020, and January 2022. The population includes patients aged 18 and older with confirmed COVID-19 infection by a PCR test that were discharged from the ICU. Eligible patients were contacted by phone by trained researchers and invited to answer the telephone survey at 30, 90 and 180 days after the ICU discharge. Between the months of the study, 1686 patients were discharged from the hospitals participating in the research. 1552 were excluded due wrong phone numbers, did not answer the call, lack of data or refused to participate. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Among the 164 respondents, 37,8% (n=62) participated of the three interview moments. We analyzed data from 164 patients, the mean age was 52.4 years old, median length of ICU stay of 11 days, with a range of 1 to 128 days, and female patients were the highest responders. The most prevalent symptoms at 30, 90 and 180 days after ICU discharge were fatigue (65,9%, 51,3% and 44,7%, respectively). The second most common symptom was mild dyspnea (42%, 31% and 29,8%, respectively) and the third most reported symptom was myalgia (29%, 22,1% and 17%, respectively). However, at 30, 90 and 180 follow up days, most patients post COVID 19 had reported “good” quality of life (57,2%, 63,1% and 50,5%, respectively), and patients that reported “very good” quality of life increased from 11,6% in 30 days to 19,4% in 180 days. Regarding health satisfaction, “satisfied” was reported by 51,1%, 48,6 and 47,3% of patients, respectively, and we also observed an increase in “very satisfied” patients (10,2%, 12,6% and 17,2%, respectively). RESULTS: The most affected domain from WHODAS 2.0 in patients after 30 days after ICU discharge was Life activities, which includes domestic activities, study and work. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: The second domain most affected was participation, that analyze the patient’s participation in community activities, physical barriers, and maintenance of personal dignity. And the third most affected domain was Mobility, that assess physical activities, such as standing up, walking inside the house, and walking long distances. Our findings lead us to conclude that even if patients are not fully recovered, they considered themselves with good quality of life and health status. To explain this controversy, we analyzed the World Health Organization concept of health, that defines health as more than the absence of disease or infirmity, considering health a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.
