**3. Results**

Out of 118 patients enrolled in our study, 81 (68.6%) were males and 37 (31.4%) were females with the male: female ratio of approximately 2.2:1. The mean age of presentation was 49.7 ± 15.01 years with minimum age of 25 years and maximum age of 87 years. Thirty-four (28.8%) patients were aged 60 and above, whereas the majority of patients in our study were in the age group 30 to 59 years (64.4%). The most common comorbidity among post-COVID-19 patients who had presented to the follow-up OPD in our study was hypertension (24.6%), followed by diabetes mellitus (14.4%), and chronic respiratory diseases (7.6%). Sixty-three (53.4%) patients did not have any comorbidities in our study. The duration of follow-up of post-COVID-19 patients ranged from 15 to 150 days with mean duration of 28 days (S.D—17.5 days) after diagnosis. More than two-third of the total patients (66.9%) had their first follow-up within three to four weeks of diagnosis of COVID-19, 25 (21.2%) patients presented within five to six weeks, nine (7.6%) patients presented within seven to eight weeks, three (2.5%) patients presented within nine to twelve weeks, and two (1.7%) patients presented after three months of diagnosis of COVID-19 (Table 1).

**Table 1.** Baseline characteristics of post-COVID-19 patients presenting to follow-up OPD at STIDH (N-118).


Table 2 enlists the symptoms during the acute phase of COVID-19 illness, as reported by the study participants in the follow-up OPD of STIDH. The most common symptoms were fever (74.6%), myalgia (74.6%), cough (73.7%), and dyspnea (60.2%). Anosmia/hyposmia and ageusia/dysgeusia were reported by 49.2% and 45.8% patients, respectively. forty-three (36.4%) patients had mild COVID-19, 15 (12.8%) had moderate COVID-19, and 60 (50.8%) had severe COVID-19 in our study. Out of the total number of patients, 34 (28.8%) were admitted to the ward and 38 (32.2%) to intensive care units

during the acute phase of COVID-19 infection (Table 3). The mean duration of hospital admission for patients who go<sup>t</sup> admitted was 9.43 ± 5.76 days with minimum duration of one day and maximum duration of 33 days.


**Table 2.** Symptomatology during COVID-19 illness of post-COVID patients presenting to follow-up OPD at STIDH (N-118).

At the time of presentation of the first follow-up at STIDH OPD, 97 (82.2%) patients had reported that they had at least one persistent/new symptom beyond two weeks from diagnosis of COVID-19 infection (Figure 1). Twenty-three (19.5%) patients had one symptom, 52 (44.1%) had two to four symptoms, and 22 (18.6%) had five or more symptoms at their first follow-up visit. Twenty-one (17.8%) patients did not have any complaint during their follow-up visit at STIDH (Figure 2). Table 4 enlists the symptoms that were persistent/had newly emerged following acute disease in the post-COVID-19 patients in our study. Dyspnea, fatigue, chest heaviness, and cough were the commonest complaints present in 48 (40.7%), 39 (33.1%), 33 (28%), and 32 (27.1%) patients, respectively. Insomnia and anxiety was present in 19 (16.1%) and 16 (13.6%) post-COVID patients. Anosmia/hyposmia was persistent in 11 (9.3%) and ageusia/hypogeusia was persistent in 8 (6.8%) patients during their first follow-up visit (Table 4).

Out of 48 patients in our study who reported dyspnea to be persistent at their first follow-up visit, 29 (24.6%) had MMRC 1 symptoms, 14 (11.9%) had MMRC 2 symptoms, 5 (4.2%) had MMRC 3 symptoms, and none had MMRC 4 symptoms. Resting hypoxia (room air oxygen saturation less than 94%) was recorded in 24 (20.33%) patients, out of which 15 (12.7%) had mild hypoxia (oxygen saturation 90 to 93%), 3 (2.5%) had moderate hypoxia (oxygen saturation 85 to 89%), and 6 (5.1%) had severe hypoxia (oxygen saturation less than 85%). Sixteen (13.6%) patients who had resting hypoxia were using domiciliary oxygen therapy at home, though intermittently (Table 5).


**Table 3.** Course of COVID-19 illness in post-COVID patients presenting to follow-up OPD at STIDH (N-118).

**Figure 1.** Distribution of post-COVID patients with at least one persistent/new symptom over two weeks after acute COVID-19 infection (N-118).

**Figure 2.** Distribution of post-COVID patients with the number of persistent/new symptoms during their first follow-up visit (N-118).

> **Table 4.** Persistent/new symptoms in post-COVID-19 patients presenting to follow-up OPD at STIDH (N-118).


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**Table 5.** Oxygenation status of post-COVID-19 patients presenting to follow-up OPD at STIDH (N-118).

On bivariate analysis of the presence of at least one persistent/new symptom in post-COVID-19 patients to some pertinent baseline characteristics, no significant association was demonstrated with age groups, gender, presence of any comorbidity, or severity of acute COVID-19 illness (*p* value- 0.177, 0.463, 0.919, and 0.056, respectively). However, the presence of at least one persistent/new symptom in post-COVID-19 patients was significantly associated to mode of isolation during their acute COVID-19 illness (*p* value 0.040) (Table 6).

**Table 6.** Association of the presence of at least one persistent/new symptom in post-COVID-19 patients with baseline characteristics (N-118).


\* *p* value < 0.05.
