Long-Term Mental Health of Discharged Patients of COVID-19 From Comprehensive Temporary Hospitals: A 15-Month Longitudinal Study

Comprehensive Temporary Hospitals (CTHs) integrate medical and psychosocial care, yet their long-term psychological correlates remain unclear. This longitudinal study compared adults discharged from CTHs after laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 (N=213) with uninfected general-population adults (N=247) 3 months post-discharge (T1) and followed the CTH cohort (N=150) at 9 (T2) and 15 months (T3). Post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), anxiety, depression, resilience and, in the CTH cohort, perceived social support were assessed. At T1, CTH patients had a lower prevalence of probable anxiety (6.67% vs. 20.65%; OR = 0.27, 95% CI 0.13–0.56) and probable depression (11.33% vs. 32.79%; OR = 0.26, 95% CI 0.15–0.46), whereas probable PTSD did not differ significantly (8.00% vs. 12.15%; OR = 0.63, 95% CI 0.31–1.27). Within the CTH cohort, symptom scores decreased significantly from T1 to T2 and remained stable through T3. Negative news exposure (β = .26 to .31) and low social support (β = -.37 to -.28) at T1 predicted long-term distress (p ≤ .001). Because the groups were not matched, no pre-pandemic baseline was available and the comparison group was assessed only once, these findings indicate an association rather than a causal protective effect of the CTH model. This model warrants prospective evaluation.