Prolonged COVID-19 symptom duration in people with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases: results from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance Vaccine Survey. RMD Open 2022 Sep;8(2)
Date
09/15/2022Pubmed ID
36104117Pubmed Central ID
PMC9475962DOI
10.1136/rmdopen-2022-002587Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85137857593 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 18 CitationsAbstract
OBJECTIVE: We investigated prolonged COVID-19 symptom duration, defined as lasting 28 days or longer, among people with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases (SARDs).
METHODS: We analysed data from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance Vaccine Survey (2 April 2021-15 October 2021) to identify people with SARDs reporting test-confirmed COVID-19. Participants reported COVID-19 severity and symptom duration, sociodemographics and clinical characteristics. We reported the proportion experiencing prolonged symptom duration and investigated associations with baseline characteristics using logistic regression.
RESULTS: We identified 441 respondents with SARDs and COVID-19 (mean age 48.2 years, 83.7% female, 39.5% rheumatoid arthritis). The median COVID-19 symptom duration was 15 days (IQR 7, 25). Overall, 107 (24.2%) respondents had prolonged symptom duration (≥28 days); 42/429 (9.8%) reported symptoms lasting ≥90 days. Factors associated with higher odds of prolonged symptom duration included: hospitalisation for COVID-19 vs not hospitalised and mild acute symptoms (age-adjusted OR (aOR) 6.49, 95% CI 3.03 to 14.1), comorbidity count (aOR 1.11 per comorbidity, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.21) and osteoarthritis (aOR 2.11, 95% CI 1.01 to 4.27). COVID-19 onset in 2021 vs June 2020 or earlier was associated with lower odds of prolonged symptom duration (aOR 0.42, 95% CI 0.21 to 0.81).
CONCLUSION: Most people with SARDs had complete symptom resolution by day 15 after COVID-19 onset. However, about 1 in 4 experienced COVID-19 symptom duration 28 days or longer; 1 in 10 experienced symptoms 90 days or longer. Future studies are needed to investigate the possible relationships between immunomodulating medications, SARD type/flare, vaccine doses and novel viral variants with prolonged COVID-19 symptoms and other postacute sequelae of COVID-19 among people with SARDs.
Author List
DiIorio M, Kennedy K, Liew JW, Putman MS, Sirotich E, Sattui SE, Foster G, Harrison C, Larché MJ, Levine M, Moni TT, Thabane L, Bhana S, Costello W, Grainger R, Machado PM, Robinson PC, Sufka P, Wallace ZS, Yazdany J, Gore-Massy M, Howard RA, Kodhek MA, Lalonde N, Tomasella LA, Wallace J, Akpabio A, Alpízar-Rodríguez D, Beesley RP, Berenbaum F, Bulina I, Chock EY, Conway R, Duarte-García A, Duff E, Gheita TA, Graef ER, Hsieh E, El Kibbi L, Liew DF, Lo C, Nudel M, Singh AD, Singh JA, Singh N, Ugarte-Gil MF, Hausmann JS, Simard JF, Sparks JAAuthor
Michael Putman MD Assistant Professor in the Medicine department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Arthritis, RheumatoidFemale
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Rheumatology
Surveys and Questionnaires