Factors Associated with Health-related Quality of Life among COVID-19 Survivors after Hospital Discharge
Keywords:
Health recovery, Health-related quality of life, COVID-19 Survivors, Functional status, Persistent symptomsAbstract
Purpose: To investigate the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and the relationships between age, gender, comorbidities, body mass index (BMI), symptoms, and functional status with the HRQoL of persons with COVID-19 after discharge.
Design: Descriptive correlational research
Methods: The samples were 113 individuals who had previously been infected with COVID-19 and had been discharged from one hospital. The research instruments included a symptom assessment scale, a functional status scale, and a health-related quality of life scale. The content validity indices for these instruments were .80, 1.00, and .88, respectively. Reliability, measured by Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, was .83, .83, and .81, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Eta Coefficients, and Pearson’s Correlation Coefficients.
Results: The study found that the overall HRQoL among COVID-19 survivors after discharge was at a moderate level (M = 23.38, SD = 3.55). Functional status was positively correlated with HRQoL at a statistically significant level of .05 (r = .257). Conversely, symptom severity was negatively correlated with HRQoL, also at a statistically significant level of .05. Symptoms that showed significant negative correlations included chest pain/palpitations, fatigue/exhaustion, shortness of breath/dyspnea, headache/dizziness, insomnia, brain fog/difficulty concentrating, joint pain, and emotional problems (r = –.363, –.292, –.247, –.250, –.281, –.295, –.229, and –.198, respectively). Age, sex, comorbidities, and BMI were not significantly associated with HRQoL among post-discharge COVID-19 survivors.
Conclusion: the results of the study on factors related to health-related quality of life of COVID-19 infected people after discharge from the system will be used as information for preparing to care for this group of infected people in the future.
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