Rheumatic Symptoms Following Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Chronic Post-COVID-19 Condition

Dan Cui; Yeming Wang; Lixue Huang; Xiaoying Gu; Zhisheng Huang; Shengrui Mu; Chen Wang; Bin Cao

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofac170

Rheumatic Symptoms Following Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Chronic Post-COVID-19 Condition

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2022 May 23;9(6):ofac170. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofac170. eCollection 2022 Jun.

Authors

Dan Cui¹, Yeming Wang², Lixue Huang², Xiaoying Gu², Zhisheng Huang², Shengrui Mu², Chen Wang¹, Bin Cao²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
² Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, National Center for Respiratory Medicine, National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Diseases, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Background: Detailed characteristics of rheumatic symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were still unknown. We aim to investigate the proportions, characteristics, and risk factors of this condition.

Methods: In this prospective, longitudinal cohort study, discharged patients with COVID-19 were interviewed face-to-face at 12 months after symptom onset. Rheumatic symptoms following COVID-19 included newly occurring joint pain and/or joint swelling. The risk factors of developing rheumatic symptoms were identified by multivariable logistic regression analysis.

Results: In total, 1296 of 2469 discharged patients with COVID-19 were enrolled in this study. Among them, 160 (12.3% [95% confidence interval {CI}, 10.6%-14.3%]) suffered from rheumatic symptoms following COVID-19 at 12-month follow-up. The most frequently involved joints were the knee joints (38%), followed by hand (25%) and shoulder (19%). Rheumatic symptoms were independent of the severity of illness and corticosteroid treatment during the acute phase, while elderly age (odds ratio [OR], 1.22 [95% CI, 1.06-1.40]) and female sex (OR, 1.58 [95% CI, 1.12-2.23]) were identified as the risk factors for this condition.

Conclusions: Our investigation showed a considerable proportion of rheumatic symptoms following COVID-19 in discharged patients, which highlights the need for continuing attention. Notably, rheumatic symptoms following COVID-19 were independent of the severity of illness and corticosteroid treatment during the acute phase.

Keywords: COVID-19; post-COVID-19 condition; rheumatic symptoms.