Three-year functional, physical, and mental health outcomes after critical COVID-19: A prospective multicentre cohort study.

Functional outcome declined from 1 to 3 years after critical COVID-19, with participants with incomplete recovery increasing from 32% to 45%.

• Functional outcome was assessed using the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE), which ranges from 1 to 8, with scores of 6 or less indicating incomplete recovery.
• The proportion with incomplete recovery (GOSE ≤ 6) increased from 32% at 1 year to 45% at 3 years.
• The study included 191 of 210 eligible participants in a prospective multicentre cohort design.
• Follow-up assessments were conducted at both 1 year and 3 years after ICU admission.

Mental health outcomes worsened between 1 and 3 years, specifically in mental HRQoL, fatigue, depression, and post-traumatic stress.

• Worse outcomes between 1 and 3 years were observed in mental Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL), fatigue, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
• These mental health measures showed statistically significant deterioration over the follow-up period.
• Secondary outcomes assessed included psychological symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD, as well as fatigue and life satisfaction.

Several outcomes remained stable between 1 and 3 years, including return-to-work rates, physical HRQoL, life satisfaction, anxiety, and respiratory symptoms.

• Return-to-work rates did not significantly change between the 1-year and 3-year follow-up assessments.
• Physical HRQoL, life satisfaction, anxiety, and respiratory symptoms also showed no significant change over this period.
• This stability contrasted with the deterioration observed in functional outcomes and mental health measures.

Younger age was independently associated with incomplete recovery at 3 years.

• Younger age was associated with incomplete recovery with an odds ratio of 0.70 (95% CI 0.54–0.91), p = 0.008.
• This finding was identified using multivariable logistic regression.
• The direction of the association indicates that younger survivors were more likely to have incomplete recovery (GOSE ≤ 6) at 3 years.

Higher Clinical Frailty Scale score was independently associated with incomplete recovery at 3 years.

• Higher Clinical Frailty Scale score was associated with incomplete recovery with an odds ratio of 1.54 (95% CI 1.04–2.28), p = 0.029.
• This association was identified using multivariable logistic regression alongside age.
• The finding suggests that frail survivors were at greater risk of incomplete functional recovery at 3 years.

The study was a prospective multicentre cohort of survivors of critical COVID-19 with a follow-up design at 1 and 3 years.

• The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04974775), registered April 28, 2020.
• 191 of 210 eligible participants were included in the analysis.
• The primary outcome was the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE), with scores of 6 or less indicating incomplete recovery.
• Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with incomplete recovery at 3 years.