Differences Between Women With COVID-19 and Long Covid

Differences Between Women Who Have Suffered COVID-19 With Respect to Those Who Have Suffered Long Covid: Observational Study

The coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has infected more than 630 million people and resulted in more than 6.5 million deaths worldwide. Among the possible sequelae of the virus, a disorder called long COVID has shown to affect about 10% of those infected, mostly adult women, without comorbidities.

Long COVID corresponds to a multisystemic syndrome following the acute period of the disease, in which the person maintains persistent symptoms such as fatigue, dyspnea, cough, memory loss, muscle and joint pain, among others.

Now that time has passed, it is necessary to verify why there are women who present symptoms of long covid and others do not.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: COVID-19
• Intervention / Treatment: Diagnostic test: Questionnaires

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 23

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Spain
  • Valencia, Spain, 46010
    • University of Valencia

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: N/A

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Women who have suffered from COVID-19 who have or have not had symptoms since then.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Women between 18 and 65 years
• That they have passed COVID-19 at least once.
• Whether or not they have symptoms secondary to COVID-19.

Exclusion Criteria:

• They do not want to sign the informed consent.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Observational Models: Case-Control
• Time Perspectives: Prospective

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Long covid; Women who present symptoms after suffering from COVID-19, consistent with long covid.	Diagnostic test: Questionnaires; A series of questionnaires will be carried out that assess both respiratory problems, depression and strength.
Covid; Women who have passed COVID-19 without consequences.	Diagnostic test: Questionnaires; A series of questionnaires will be carried out that assess both respiratory problems, depression and strength.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Fatigue Assessment Scale	Scale that measures fatigue, made up of 10 items rated from 1 to 5: 1. Never 2. Sometimes (think of a frequency of once a month or less, for example) 3. Regularly (for example, a couple of times a month) 4. often (think for example every week) 5. always (every day)	Baseline

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale	The mMRC Dyspnea Scale quantifies disability attributable to breathlessness, and is useful for characterizing baseline dyspnea in patients with respiratory diseases. Describes baseline dyspnea, but does not accurately quantify response to treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Demonstrates at least moderate positive correlation with other dyspnea scores, including the baseline dyspnea index (BDI) and oxygen cost diagram (OCD). It measures the degree of dyspnea in 5 levels (from 0 to 4).	Baseline
Quality of life (EQ-5D)	The 5-level EQ-5D version (EQ-5D-5L) was introduced by the EuroQol Group in 2009 to improve the instrument's sensitivity and to reduce ceiling effects, as compared to the EQ-5D-3L. The descriptive system comprises five dimensions: mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort and anxiety/depression. Each dimension has 5 levels: no problems, slight problems, moderate problems, severe problems and extreme problems. The patient is asked to indicate his/her health state by ticking the box next to the most appropriate statement in each of the five dimensions. This decision results in a 1-digit number that expresses the level selected for that dimension. The EQ VAS records the patient's self-rated health on a vertical visual analogue scale, where the endpoints are labelled 'The best health you can imagine' and 'The worst health you can imagine'. The VAS can be used as a quantitative measure of health outcome.	Baseline
Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)	A more precise measure of personal stress can be determined by using a variety of instruments that have been designed to help measure individual stress levels. The first of these is called the Perceived Stress Scale. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is a classic stress assessment instrument. The tool, while originally developed in 1983, remains a popular choice for helping us understand how different situations affect our feelings and our perceived stress. The questions in this scale ask about your feelings and thoughts during the last month. In each case, you will be asked to indicate how often you felt or thought a certain way. Although some of the questions are similar, there are differences between them and you should treat each one as a separate question. The best approach is to answer fairly quickly. That is, don't try to count up the number of times you felt a particular way; rather indicate the alternative that seems like a reasonable estimate.	Baseline
Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS)	The Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item depression scale (PHQ-9) and 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7) are among the best validated and most commonly used depression and anxiety measures, respectively.20-25 They have been used in hundreds of research studies, incorporated into numerous clinical practice guidelines, and adopted by a variety of medical and mental health care practice settings. Importantly, the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 are public domain measures available in more than 80 translations, many of which can be freely downloaded at www.phqscreeners.com. This paper uses data from 3 clinical trials to examine the reliability and convergent, construct, and factor structure validity as well as sensitivity to change of the Patient Health Questionnaire Anxiety-Depression Scale (PHQ-ADS) - a 16-item scale comprising the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 - as a composite measure of depression and anxiety.	Baseline
Inventario de Depresión de Beck (BDI-2)	This test consists of 21 multiple-choice questions, where the subject in question who takes the test must assess on a scale of 0 to 3 the degree to which he personally identifies with the answer he has answered in it (where 0 is that you do not identify at all, being able to conclude that you do not present the symptoms on which the question is concerned; and 3 is that there is an absolute identification, for which, the subject would suffer from the symptoms). It is a test that is easy to perform, in which the subject would not spend more than 10 or 15 minutes doing it.	Baseline
30 second sit-to-stand	Test that measures the number of times you can get up and sit down in a chair in 30 seconds.	Baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Valencia

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 29, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 28, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): October 1, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 29, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 29, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): December 30, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 16, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 12, 2023
• Last Verified: October 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Women; COVID-19; Long covid
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Coronavirus Infections; Coronaviridae Infections; Nidovirales Infections; RNA Virus Infections; Virus Diseases; Infections; Respiratory Tract Infections; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Pneumonia, Viral; Pneumonia; Lung Diseases; Disease Attributes; Chronic Disease; Post-Infectious Disorders; COVID-19; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome
• Other Study ID Numbers: OBS_LCOVID

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No