INTRODUCTION
The public health agenda of the 21st century, has been marked by the coronavirus 19 (COVID-19) disease which started at the end of 2019 and continues in 2021, and is transmitted from person to person.1
An unknown pneumonia picture characterized by severe acute respiratory tract infection symptoms has been reported from China in the early stages of the disease.2 In this pneumonia picture, in addition to the pulmonary system, nephrological3, cardiac4,5, neurological6, hematopoietic7and ophthalmic8involvements are observed. It has been shown that disease severity can range from mild to critical, 81% of cases are mild to moderate, 14% are severe and 5% are critical.9
Typically, symptoms of COVID-19 appear in individuals for 14 days from the onset of symptoms, after which symptoms subside or completely resolve, and contagiousness decreases.9,10 However, clinical evidence demonstrates the persistence of clinical symptoms after infection called post-COVID conditions – with varying consistency and duration between infected individuals.11-15 The long COVID that develops in post-COVID conditions is a wide variety of new, recurring or lasting symptoms that may last for weeks or even months, which those first infected may experience more than four weeks later. Long COVID can be seen even in asymptomatic individuals. These conditions can have different types and combinations of health problems for different durations. Commonly reported combinations include fatigue or weakness, brain fog (difficulty thinking or concentrating), fever, headache, loss of smell or taste, dizziness when standing, palpitations, chest pain, difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, cough, joint and muscle pain, symptoms worsening after physical or mental activities are shown.16 Six months after the onset of acute illness, 36.6%, 14.5%, and 5.2% of COVID-19 patients reported prolonged symptoms in the moderate, severe, and very severe categories, respectively. In particular, fatigue, shortness of breath and brain fog have been shown to be among the main debilitating symptoms that lead to a decrease in quality of life.17 On the other hand, it is stated that prolonged COVID symptoms are a strong predictor on general health perception.18
Considering all these reasons, individuals with a wide range of long COVID-19 symptoms need early monitoring and close follow-up.19 In population-based studies, the prevalence of long COVID is estimated between 13.3-30.0%12,20 and given the size of the pandemic, it is not yet clear how this low prevalence will guide the burden of disease in the future.
On the other hand, the cause of persistent symptoms and the long-term health effects of these symptoms on quality of life and long-term health are not clear, and there is no standard guideline for the management of this problem. As a vulnerable group of the COVID-19 disease, comprehensive epidemiological investigation and clinical evaluation for individuals with long COVID are important to prevent future sequelae and start early rehabilitation.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of pandemic on COVID-19 quality of life and effecting factors among adults with long COVID.