Clinical manifestations of Long-COVID: an observational perspective

Objectives: Coronavirus Disease-19, also known as COVID-19, resulted in a pandemic that caused massive health concerns and economic losses globally. Worldwide, people are still facing persistent clinical symptoms following COVID-19 infection, characterized as Long-COVID. This study aimed to assess the experience and awareness of Long-COVID clinical symptoms in Saudi Arabia. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the College of Medicine, Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during the period April 5, 2023 to August 30, 2023. An online questionnaire was created using Google Forms and distributed with a URL to students via email and WhatsApp. The questionnaire consisted of 17 questions classifying the respondent's responses. The survey consisted of three sections, addressing demographics, their experience with COVID-19 and whether they had Long-COVID symptoms. A total of 490 participants participated in the study survey. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 28 was used for data administration and analysis. P-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: Out of the participants, 53.9% had prior exposure to COVID-19. During acute infection, tiredness was the most common symptom in participants, observed in 84.5% of people. The other common symptoms which were reported among the participants included fever (75%), soreness of throat (65.5%), headache (65.2). Some symptoms were more dominant in males (such as acne) and some in females (hair loss). Regarding prolonged symptoms, 43.6% of females and 33.3% of males had experienced symptoms of Long-COVID. Tiredness was once again the most dominant symptom (16.7%). The other common prolonged symptoms of Long-COVID observed were loss of taste or smell (9.1%), body pain (7.6%), headache (7.2%), foggy memory (7.2%) and shortness of breath (6.4%). Lastly, awareness of Long COVID was lower than expected, with 51.5% of females and 55.1% of males unaware of the syndrome. Conclusion: This study's findings show the effects Long COVID-19 has on the general population, which includes various symptoms affecting physical, mental and emotional needs. The findings also suggest potential gender differences in Long-COVID clinical symptoms, thus highlighting the need for further research with larger and more diverse samples.