Short-term functional changes after hospital discharge by COVID-19 through teleconsultation at a reference service in Northeast Brazil: A cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT

Coronavirus infection disease 2019 (COVID-19) was associated with a physical-functional and emotional decline in patients with COVID-19 hospital internment. Objective: Evaluate the main functional changes after hospital discharge after COVID-19 by teleconsultation. A cross-sectional study was carried out between April and July 2020, the peak period of new cases, hospital admission, and deaths by COVID-19, in Recife-Brazil. We included patients (n = 89) over 18 years with positive COVID-19 RT-PCR tests and hospitalized for more than 7 days. Functional aspects such as muscle pain, shortness of breath, cough, weight loss >5 kg, weakness/fatigue, daily living activities, balance, walking, lying down, sensitivity, anxiety/sadness, altered memory, or understanding were assessed. Besides this, the impact of hospital admission on daily activities and the quality of information obtained by teleconsultation were quantified. The mean age was 63.5 years (±14), and in the hospital, the mean internment was 18 days (±16). The main findings of this study showed four predominant functional alterations weight loss greater than 5 kg (60.7%), muscle fatigue/weakness (53.9%), muscle/joint pain (43.8%), and anxiety/sadness (46.1%). Of the functions analyzed, 59.6% of patients reported dysfunctions in at least three of the alterations evaluated. There were several short-term physical-functional and emotional changes in adults after hospital discharge.