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More than 10 percent of COVID-19 patients with moderate or serious symptoms were still feeling the aftereffects, such as breathing difficulties, a year after their release from hospitals, a study showed.

The findings of the study by the Japanese Respiratory Society (JRS) were presented at a June 1 meeting of an expert panel advising the health ministry on responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study involved about 1,000 COVID-19 patients who were 20 or older. They were hospitalized for breathing difficulties and pneumonia, and required oxygen, ventilators or intensive care treatment between September 2020 and September 2021.

They were interviewed, underwent lung CT scans and answered questionnaires for the study.

The research found that 13.6 percent of these patients suffered from “long COVID,” or the lingering effects of the disease, a year after they were discharged from hospitals.

The most common long-term symptom was muscle loss, at 9.27 percent, followed by difficulty breathing, at 6 percent, and fatigue, at 4.9 percent.

The results of the lung CT scans showed abnormalities in 6.3 percent of the patients 12 months after their hospital release.

Interstitial pneumonia was more common as an aftereffect among COVID-19 patients, compared with patients who developed pneumonia as a result of other diseases, according to the study.

“The rate for patients suffering from muscle loss and breathing difficulties increased among those who developed serious symptoms soon after contracting the virus,” said Akihito Yokoyama, professor of respiratory medicine at Kochi University who led the JRS study.

But fewer patients tend to seek treatment for the lingering aftereffects.

Only 17 percent of the those with long COVID received treatment a year after their hospital release, according to the survey.

Yokoyama said long-term medical support should be available to them.

“In the case of COVID-19, only a fraction of the patients have access to rehabilitation despite having considerable muscle weakness,” Yokoyama said.

Another study on COVID-19 by Keio University found that 36.1 percent of patients who were administered oxygen have suffered some kind of long-term effect from the disease.

The ratio of those with long COVID who were not administered oxygen came to 31.8 percent.

The most common aftereffect was fatigue, at 13 percent, followed by difficulty breathing, at 9 percent, and muscle loss and difficulty concentrating, at 8 percent each, according to the study.

Middle-aged patients represented the age group most susceptible to the long-term effects, the study showed.

The study was led by Koichi Fukunaga, professor of respiratory disease at the university.

It sent questionnaires to 1,200 patients aged 18 or older who were admitted to hospitals between January 2020 and February 2021, regardless of their conditions.

(This article was written by Natsumi Adachi and Hiromi Kumai.)

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