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Although nonhospitalized COVID-19 patients are at low risk for delayed complications, they visit their general practitioner or clinic more often than their uninfected peers in the 6 months after testing positive, finds a population-based study published yesterday in
The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
The study, led by researchers from the University of Southern Denmark, involved comparing 8,983 living, nonhospitalized COVID-19 patients with 80,894 Danish residents who tested negative for the virus from Feb 27 to May 31, 2020. Both groups were followed for 2 weeks to 6 months after testing.
Both groups were at similar risk for being diagnosed as having a new health condition at a hospital (risk difference [RD], 26.3% vs 28.8%), but COVID-19 patients were more likely to be diagnosed as having breathing problems (RD, 1.2% vs 0.7%; adjusted RR [aRR], 2.00) or venous thromboembolism (blood clots in the veins) (RD, 0.2% vs 0.1%; aRR, 1.77).