Evaluation of prognosis, post-treatment well-being and anxiety status of patients who had recovered from covid-19 disease

Aim: The aims of this study are to demonstrate the symptoms of patients with Covid-19 disease when they had the disease and after recovery to determine if there are ongoing symptoms due to Covid-19 after recovery, to determine whether the dyspnea symptom, which is common in Covid-19 disease, continues after the disease, and if so, its degree and to evaluate the Covid-19 anxiety developed by people who experience the disease process agains tthe risk of getting sick again. Material and Methods: 207 patients who applied to Malatya İnönü University Faculty of Medicine Turgut Özal Medical Center and were diagnosed with Covid-19 disease between March 2020 and August 2020 were included in this cross-sectional/descriptive study. Questions containing information about the sociodemographic characteristics and Covid-19 disease they experienced were asked to the patients by phone. The patients were also administered a questionnaire including the Medical Research Council Scale (MRCS) Dyspnea Scale and the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) by phone. IBM SPSS Statistics 26.0 program was used for statistical analysis of the data. Statistical significance was analyzed by Pearson chi-square test, Yatesin corrected chi-square test and Fisher's exact chi-square test. The stasistical significance level was taken as p˂0,05. Results: A total of 207 participants, 78 (37,7%) women, 129 (62,3%) men, were included in our study. The average age of the participants was 45,35. 5,3% of the participants were asymptomatic. During the illness of the participants, 78,3% (n=162) weakness, 52,7%(n=109) fever, 48,8% (n=101) cough, 43,5% (n=90) dyspnea, 41,1% (n=85) loss of smell and 34,8% (n=72) loss of taste were observed. It was determined that 61,8% (n=128) of the participants continued to have at least 1 symptom after suffering the disease. Ongoing symptoms in the participants were shortness of breath (44,9%), weakness (32,4%), loss of smell (7,2%), and cough (4,8%). According to the MRCS Dyspnea Scale, 35,3% of the participants had stage 2 dyspnea and 9,2% had stage 3 dyspnea. A significant relationship was found between the dyspnea symptom and age (p=0,033), body mass index (BMI) (p=0,012), presence of chronic disease (p=0,015), presence of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) disease (p=0,007), presence of Hypertension (HT) (p=0,048) and history of hospitalization (p=0,039) and intensive care (p=0,007) stay. According to the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale of the participants, 9,7 % of them had a high anxiety score. A significant relationship was found between the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale and the history of hospitalization in the intensive care unit (p=0.008), the presence of ongoing dyspnea symptoms after the illness (p=0.033) and the MRCS Dyspnea Scale (p=0.001). Conclusion: Dyspnea observed during the disease was more common in individuals who were older, had at least one chronic disease, had a diagnosis of Diabetes Mellitus or Hypertension and had hospital or intensive care hospitalization history. Dyspnea continuing after suffering the disease was more common in individuals over the age of 40 with a high BMI. Dyspnea stages on the MRCS Dyspnea Scale was found to be higher in individuals who were older, had the earlier Covid-19 disease and had a history of hospitalization in intensive care. 9,7% of the participants were detected having coronavirus anxiety according to Coronavirus Anxiety Scale, although they had already recovered from Covid-19. Coronavirus anxiety was more common in participants with dyspnea symptoms after suffering the disease, high dyspnea stage on the MRCS Dyspnea Scale and a history of intensive care hospitalization. Covid-19 disease affects a person both physically and mentally during and after the illness. Family Physicians who aim at the holistic approach should be more careful for ongoing physical and psychological symptoms after Covid-19 disease. A follow-up algorithm should be created for post-illness. Keywords: Covid-19 disease, symptom, dyspnea,anxiety, Medical Research Council Scale (MRCS) Dyspnea Scale, Coronavirus Anxiety Scale.