At least 75 per cent of the Covid-19 survivors, who were treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), experience physical, mental and/or cognitive problems one-year post ICU, according to a large-scale MONITOR-IC study published in the journal JAMA.
The study was led by Radboud university medical center, in which the health status of ICU survivors is monitored with questionnaires up to five years after ICU admission.
The study regarding long-term health problems was conducted among 246 Covid-19 patients (176 men/70 women) who were treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) in the Netherlands. Their mean age was 61 years. Using questionnaires, they were asked how they were doing one-year post ICU. Worldwide, this is the first scientific research regarding long-term problems among Covid-19 ICU survivors. Patients in this study were admitted to the ICU during the first Covid-19 surge between March and July 2020.
Majority of patients experience health problems one-year post ICU. This study shows that three quarters of the Covid-19 ICU survivors experience problems one-year post ICU. These are primarily physical problems, whereby half of the patients experience feelings of fatigue. Other physical problems are e.g. a reduced condition, pain, muscle weakness and shortness of breath.
Also, mental symptoms are common; one in five Covid-19 ICU survivors experience feelings of anxiety or post-traumatic stress. Furthermore, one in six have cognitive problems such as memory or attention problems. These various problems negatively affect former ICU patients’ daily lives.
Over half of them indicate that they have work-related problems because of the health problems: they reduced their working hours; they are still on sick leave or have even given up their job.
Yet another study has said that about 50 per cent of people infected with Covid-19 during the first wave of infections in 2020 may have long-term and even permanent changes to their sense of smell.
Scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm found this after they ran comprehensive tests on 100 individuals who caught Covid in the first wave of infections in 2020.