Gender differences in symptomatology, socio-demographic information and quality of life in Spanish population with long COVID condition: a cross-sectional study.

Introduction: Long COVID patients experience a decrease in their quality of life due to the symptomatology produced by the disease. It is also important to understand how long COVID affects both men and women. The objective of this study is to examine the impact of long COVID symptomatology on the quality of life of Spanish adults from a gender perspective. Methods: An observational and cross-sectional study was carried out. Participants were able to complete an online questionnaire using an online platform. A sample of 206 people participated in the study. Results: The 80.6% of the sample were women with a mean age of 46.51 (±8.28) and the 19.4% were men with a mean age of 48.03 (±9.50). The medium score in the PAC19-QoL test was 141.47 (±24.96) and segmented by gender, 141.65 (±23.95) for women and 140.82 (±28.66) for men. The most common symptoms in women were muscle and joint pain (94.6%), fatigue (94.0%), discomfort (92.2%), difficulty concentrating (91.0%), and memory loss (88.6%). For men the symptoms included muscle and joint pain (97.5%) and fatigue (97.5%) both occupying first position, discomfort (92.0%), difficulty concentrating (90.0%), mood disturbances (90.0%), and memory loss (87.5%). The chi-square test showed statistical significance (p < 0.005) for socio-demographic information, quality of life scores, and long COVID symptoms by intensities. Conclusion: This study shows that there are gender differences in the way that long COVID is experienced.

Adaptation and validation of the PAC-19QoL-specific quality of life questionnaire for the Spanish population with long COVID.

INTRODUCTION: The post-acute (long) COVID-19 Quality of Life instrument is the only specific instrument designed to assess the quality of life in long COVID patients. The present study aims to make a transcultural adaptation and validation into Spanish of the disease-specific (long COVID) quality of life instrument, post-acute (long) COVID-19 Quality of Life, to have a tool for objective measurement of quality of life in this population. METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was divided into two phases. In phase one, the translation and cultural adaptation of the questionnaire was performed, while in phase two, the questionnaire was validated. The Spanish version of the questionnaire was used with a sample of 206 people, 40 males (19.4%) and 166 females (80.6%), with an age range between 21 and 70 years old. Participants completed the questionnaire through an online platform. Internal consistency, construct validity, convergent validity, test-retest reliability, and ceiling and floor effects of the Spanish version were analyzed. RESULTS: The Spanish version of the post-acute (long) COVID-19 Quality of Life instrument showed high internal consistency, with Cronbach's alpha= 0.922 and an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.936. Mean scores obtained in the PAC-19QoL and SF-12 questionnaires showed that those who had a worse quality of life in the SF-12 tool also a had worse quality of life in the PAC-19QoL tool. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the Spanish version of the post-acute (long) COVID-19 Quality of Life instrument is an appropriate and valid tool for assessing the quality of life of long COVID patients.