Aim:

to estimate the prevalence of long COVID, its signs and symptoms and use of resources in adult patients in primary care (PC).

Methods:

an observational, descriptive, retrospective case series study performed in primary care. Patients older than 18 years positive for SARS-CoV-2 from 29 February until 15 April 2020 were included. Variables related to clinical symptoms and use of resources were recorded from four weeks after diagnosis up to 39 weeks.

Results:

mean age of the 267 patients was 57 years old (16.0 SD); 55,8% were women. In the acute phase, 61.8% of patients required hospitalization and 43.8% suffered bilateral pneumonia. Long COVID prevalence was 45,7% (95% CI 39.6-51.9), and 53.3% had symptoms lasting longer than 12 weeks. Most common symptoms were dyspnoea (45.1%, 95% CI 36.1-54.3), asthenia (42.6%, 95% CI 33.7-51.9), cough (24.6%, 95% CI 17.2-33.2) and neuropsychiatric disorders (18%, 95% CI 11.7-26.0). A total of 98.4% of long COVID patients contacted primary care during follow-up, with 6.7 (5.0 SD) contacts on average. A total of 45.1%, 34.4% and 41.8% underwent laboratory tests, chest x-rays and required work leave, respectively. Long COVID patients needed more hospital referrals (20.5%) compared to those who did not develop this (3.4%). Factors associated with more primary care appointments included developing long COVID (IRR 2.9, 95% CI 2.5-3.4) and requiring a work leave (IRR 2.4, 95% CI 2.1-2.9).

Conclusion:

virtually half of patients developed long COVID. Most common chronic symptoms were dyspnoea, asthenia and cough. Use of resources was two to six times greater among long COVID patients, in contrast to those who did not develop long COVID.

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