Post-Acute Effects Of Sars-Cov-2 Infection In Individuals Not Requiring Hospital Admission: A Danish Population-Based Cohort Study

May 10, 2021

Lars Christian Lund, MD, Prof Jesper Hallas, DMSc, Prof Henrik Nielsen, DMSc, Anders Koch, PhD, Stine Hasling Mogensen, PhD, Nikolai Constantin Brun, PhD, Christian Fynbo Christiansen, PhD, Reimar Wernich Thomsen, PhD, Prof Anton Pottegård, DMSc.

Lancet

This study aimed to explore the post-acute impact on non-hospitalized Danish patients 2-6 months after being infected with SARS-CoV-2 by looking into incident drug use, overall healthcare, and hospital diagnoses. Eligible participants were those with a negative or positive RT-PCR test from February 27-May 31, 2020 in Denmark. Results show that 85.6% (8983) of the 10,498 eligible participants who tested positive were alive and not admitted to the hospital 2 weeks after their test while 1,310 participants were admitted two weeks after their test. 30.7% (2757) of the 8983 participants began new drug treatments compared to the 35.3% of participants who tested negative. Participants who tested positive (1.8%) were more likely to take bronchodilation drugs than those who tested negative (1.5%). After comparing positive vs negative participants, researchers found no increased risk of severe acute complications; however, the increased visit for COVID-19 positive patients to their primary-care physicians, may indicate the management of long-covid symptoms.

Lund LC, Hallas J, Nielsen H, et al. Post-acute effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection in individuals not requiring hospital admission : a Danish population-based cohort study. Lancet 2021; 3099: 1–10.

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