IMPACTO DA COVID-19 NA QUALIDADE DE VIDA E FUNCIONALIDADE POS UTI

INTRODUCTION: Since the first reports of pneumonia caused by SARS-COV-2 in December 2019, in Wuhan, China, the infection has expanded and, according to the WHO, more than 500 million people have already been infected, with more than 6 millions ended up dying as a result of the disease. Due to the evolution of the disease, some individuals required intensive care unit care. After discharge, several individuals still present symptoms, the most common of which are fatigue, dyspnea and cognitive impairment. In this context, the applicability of instruments to assess these impacts is valid. AIMS: To investigate the impact of covid-19 on cognition, degree of effort and complaints of fatigue after staying in the ICU. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a quantitative cohort, prospective and multicenter study, which assessed cognition, fatigue and the degree of exertion perceived by the patient after discharge from the ICU, using validated questionnaires. The data were evaluated using the statistical program SPSS® Statistics v. 25.0. RESULTS: Sample composed of 167 patients, with an average age of 49.3 years, average ICU time of 16.6 days and the small majority were male (52.7%). 75 patients participated in the 3 collection moments for the SPMSQ, with an average of 1.63 on D14, 0.88 on D30 and 0.47 on D90. 76.1% of participants had preserved cognitive capacity at D14, 87.1% at D30 and 95.9% at D90. 67 patients responded to the BORG scale in the 3 segments, with the average being 5.63% on D14, 3.63% on D30 and 1.88% on D90. 64 patients responded to the EAF questionnaire in the three segments, where it was also possible to observe an improvement in the average score in D90 (21.59), when compared to D14 (31.75) and D30 (26.39). Spearman’s Rho coefficient found a very weak correlation between the instruments. Comparing patients with an ICU stay of up to 11 days and those who required 12 or more days of hospitalization, it was observed that the latter group presented higher average values. It was also possible to observe that sex interfered with the cognitive evolution of patients. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: The evidence found in this study shows the longitudinal behavior of cognitive state, fatigue and the degree of perceived effort when performing tasks, as highly impacting global health after the acute phase of covid-19.

KEYWORDS: Covid-19; Cognition; Fatigue, Dyspnea; ICU.