Document Type
Honors Thesis
Abstract
Currently available information on the risk factors, manifestation, treatments, and long-term effects of the long COVID is inconclusive, requiring further research to identify timely interventions that may help treat long COVID patients, reduce symptom burden and restore functional abilities. This research aims to analyze symptom patterns and their association with influencing factors in adults with long COVID by examining intercorrelations among symptoms, identifying influencing factors of symptoms, and examining the associations of symptoms with disability and quality of life over time in long COVID patients. The Theory of Unpleasant Symptoms developed by Lenz et al. (1997) is applied as the conceptual framework to guide the proposed research. The study's goal is to contribute to identifying treatment options and means of prevention for further disability from long COVID and developing evidence-based practice guidelines for symptom management in long COVID patients. This study was a descriptive secondary analysis using data collected from an ongoing longitudinal study consisting of 19 subjects with long COVID. The present study found that participants have been experiencing persistent COVID-related symptoms for months. Among five symptoms, participants reported “quite a bit of” fatigue, moderate amount of dyspnea with daily activities, and “somewhat level” of pain interference/intensity. In addition, participants reported that they had at least one cause of cognitive discomfort such as difficulties with concentrating, headache, or brain fogginess. The majority of participants were female, were overweight or obese based on BMI (kg/m2) >25.0 and had high number of COVID-19 symptoms at the time of COVID-19 diagnosis. In addition, some of them had common co-existing conditions of Connective Tissue Disorders or Chronic Pulmonary Obstructive Disorders. Moreover, compared to the general United States population, they had poorer quality of life composed of physical and mental health components. Thus, there is a need for further research replicating these results in a larger sample and examining the interventions to improve quality of life by reducing symptom burden and improving physical and emotional function.
Publication Date
5-1-2023
Language
English
Faculty Mentor of Honors Project
Yaewon Seo
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Chaudhry, Maaham, "SYMPTOM PATTERNS AND THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH INFLUENCING FACTORS IN ADULTS WITH LONG COVID - A SECONDARY ANALYSIS" (2023). 2023 Spring Honors Capstone Projects. 19.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/honors_spring2023/19