Symptoms patterns and health-related quality of life in a real-life cohort of Long COVID patients: understanding the complexity to optimize the rehabilitation treatment

Objective We wanted to identify prevalent symptoms and patterns of Long COVID syndrome, assess the impact on health-related quality of life, and explore factors linked to lower quality of life, including vaccination status and symptom count, in a real-life cohort. Design observational retrospective study. Results We assessed 133 patients and 85 completed the evaluations. The most common symptoms reported were motor deficit (95.29%) and fatigue (94.12%), while respiratory symptoms, cognitive deficits and weakness (76.47%) were less frequent. Many patients experienced multiple symptoms, with the majority reporting 5 to 8 symptoms simultaneously, most associated with fatigue. However, the number of symptoms did not correlate with health-related quality of life as measured by the 12-Item Short Form Survey (SF-12) questionnaire. Finally, vaccination status did not significantly affect SF-12 scores or the number of reported symptoms. Conclusion Our analysis highlighted the presence of diverse multisystemic symptoms in Long COVID patients. Many individuals experienced multiple associated symptoms, negatively affecting their overall quality of life. Neither vaccination status nor the number of symptoms appeared to influence reported quality of life. This emphasizes the need for a comprehensive, early, and multi-disciplinary approach to address the syndrome's diverse symptoms.