Investigation of the effect of COVID-19 disease on lung functions in the long term

SUMMARY AIM: The aim of our study to determine whether lung function damages exist in young and productive individuals who recover from the COVID-19 disease in a comparatively less serious way. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study that is done in the type of retrospective cohort is conducted with 77 volunteers who work in an industrial company and approved that they have the COVID-19 disease with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and pass the disease mildly. A survey consisting of 18 questions related to socio-demographical information, Pulmonary function test (PFT) measurement with Spirometry, and fingertip oxygen saturation measurement with pulse oximeter are applied to the participants. The PFT results of before and after COVID-19 are collected from the infirmary files. Kolmogorov Smirnov Test is applied for the normality assumption tests. Paired Samples T Test is used for measurement of the difference between constant variables. In all statistical tests, the significance level is accepted as %95 and p<0,05. Statistical analyses are performed in the SPSS 20.0 statistical package programme. RESULTS: In our study, it is observed that 45 percent of participants are men and 54,5 percent are women, also the average age is 24,68 ± 5,8 SS year, and the average BMI is 23,6± 3,53 SS kg/m2. 45.4 percent of the sample has a smoking history, 4 percent has constant medicine usage, and 4 percent has chronic disease history. After COVID-19 Pulmonary function tests are performed after average 59,6± 23,8 days later. There are 281,7±168 days between Before and After COVID-19 PFTs. In our study, it is noticed that there is no meaningful difference between FEV1, FVC, and FEV1/FVC (p >0,05). It is also noticed that there is no meaningful difference between FEV1, FVC, and FEV1/FVC when evaluating Pulmonary function test of participants xii who have a smoking history and have a dispnea (p >0,05). The results show that the most frequently observed symptoms are fatigue (83,1%) and muscle and joint pain (76,6%) while the least frequently observed symptoms are fever (39%) and diarrhea (28,6%) during COVID-19 infection on participants. After 59 days later of COVID-19 diagnosis, it is observed that the most frequent symptoms are muscle and joint pain (20,8%) and cough (19%) while the least frequent symptom is fever (1,3%). CONCLUSION: In our study, it is shown that healthy young adults who had mild COVID-19 disease did not have a negative change in pulmonary function test, and thus, it was concluded that lung function loss did not occur after COVID-19 in this patient group. This result did not change the severity of the smoking status or the complaint of shortness of breath during illness. It was observed that cough and muscle joint symptoms caused by COVID-19 continued 2 months after the disease. Keywords: COVID-19, Pulmonary function test, long term COVID-19, COVID-19 symptoms