Cardiopulmonary, Functional, Cognitive and Mental Health Outcomes Post-COVID-19, Across the Range of Severity of Acute Illness, in a Physically Active, Working-Age Population

O’Sullivan, Oliver; Holdsworth, David A.; Ladlow, Peter; Barker-Davies, Robert M.; Chamley, Rebecca; Houston, Andrew; May, Samantha; Dewson, Dominic; Mills, Daniel; Pierce, Kayleigh; Mitchell, James; Xie, Cheng; Sellon, Edward; Naylor, Jon; Mulae, Joseph; Cranley, Mark; Talbot, Nick P.; Rider, Oliver J.; Nicol, Edward D.; Bennett, Alexander N.

doi:10.1186/s40798-023-00552-0

Sports Medicine - Open

Table 3 Descriptive data demonstrating body composition, ambulatory function, mental health and fatigue status

From: Cardiopulmonary, Functional, Cognitive and Mental Health Outcomes Post-COVID-19, Across the Range of Severity of Acute Illness, in a Physically Active, Working-Age Population

	H	CS	CR	COM	F Value	P value	Post hoc comparison
Number	35	34	18	26
Age	43 ± 9	37 ± 10	34 ± 6	38 ± 8	4.856	0.003	¶, †*
Time to assessment	145 ± 63	166 ± 65	142 ± 53	–	0.910	0.408
Body composition
Height (cm)	176 ± 7	179 ± 10	180 ± 8	176 ± 8	1.157	0.330
Body mass (kg)	96 ± 15	94 ± 19	83 ± 11	79 ± 8	10.083	< 0.001	†, §, ¥*
Body mass index (kg m²)	31 ± 4	29 ± 4	26 ± 2	25 ± 3	17.909	< 0.001	†*, §, #, ¥**
Waist circumference	101 ± 13	96 ± 13	85 ± 10	86 ± 7	13.923	< 0.001	†*, §, #, ¥*
Waist-to-hip ratio	0.96 ± 0.09	0.94 ± 0.12	0.92 ± 0.09	0.91 ± 0.07	1.272	0.288
Submaximal function
6MWT distance (m)	603 ± 112	624 ± 82	689 ± 86	719 ± 90	9.357	< 0.001	†, §, ¥
Mental Health
GAD-7 score	4 (2–7)	5 (2–7)	2 (0–4)	2 (0–3)	12.407^a	0.006	¥*
< 5 none/minimal, n (%)	18 (51)	21 (62)	17 (94)	23 (88)
≥ 10 moderate, n (%)	3 (9)	3 (9)	0 (0)	1 (4)
≥ 15 severe, n (%)	1 (3)	2 (6)	0 (0)	0 (0)
PHQ-9 score	6 (3–10)	8 (5–12)	3 (2–4)	1 (0–3)	40.929^a	< 0.001	§*, #, ¥***
< 5 none/minimal, n (%)	12 (34)	6 (18)	13 (72)	24 (92)
≥ 10 moderate, n (%)	10 (29)	6 (18)	1 (6)	1 (4)
≥ 15 moderate to severe, n (%)	4 (11)	6 (18)	0 (0)	0 (0)
PCL5 post-trauma stress score	10 (4–24)	9 (6–19)	4 (0–6)	1 (0–5)	25.680^a	< 0.001	§, #, ¥***
> 32 PTSD cut-off, n (%)	3 (9)	9 (26)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Quality of Life: EQ5D	70 (55–80)	69 (40–75)	82 (70–89)	81 (74–90)	21.687^a	< 0.001	†, §, #, ¥
Fatigue
FAS	23 (17–29)	26 (22–31)	17 (14–19)	15 (13–17)	41.722^a	< 0.001	†, §, #, ¥**
> 21 cut off –fatigued, n (%)	20 (57)	20 (59)	3 (17)	1 (4)

Bold denotes a statistically significant result, with level indicated by asterisk(s)
Abbreviations: 6MWT, six-minute walk test; GAD-7, general anxiety disorder 7-item checklist, PHQ-9, patient health questionnaire 9 item checklist; PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder; EQ5D, European Quality of Life 5 domains; FAS, fatigue assessment scale. H, hospitalised illness; CS, community illness with on-going symptoms (community-symptomatic), CR, community illness now recovered (community-recovered; COM, age-, gender- and job-role-matched comparison population. There was no significant difference between CR and COM for any parameter
^†, H vs. CR; §, H vs. COM; #; CS vs. CR; ¥, CS vs. COM; ¶, H vs. CS. Level of significance: *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. ^aKruskal–Wallis test statistic

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