new publication: Definition of the Post-COVID syndrome using a symptom-based Post-COVID score in a prospective, multi-center, cross-sectoral cohort of the German National Pandemic Cohort Network (NAPKON)

In 2022, a Post-COVID Severity Score was developed in the population-based cohort in NAPKON by Bahmer et al. Now, this definition has been implemented in the cross-sectional cohort in the network. It has been altered by including patient reported outcome measures in symptom assessment due to smaller prevalence of symptoms, most importantly fatigue, as compared to existing literature. This approach allowed a more detailed assessment of patients and their symptoms. The results were similar to the score development cohort presented by Bahmer et al. and other existing literature, including comparable correlations between post-COVID severity and quality of life (measured by EQ-5D-5L), functional deficits and social participation as well as differences between sex and number of preexisting comorbidities.

The paper is available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-024-02226-9