Effects

COVID-19 can involve persistence, sequelae, and other medical complications that last weeks to
months after initial recovery. This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to identify studies
assessing the long-term efects of COVID-19. LitCOVID and Embase were searched to identify articles
with original data published before the 1st of January 2021, with a minimum of 100 patients. For
efects reported in two or more studies, meta-analyses using a random-efects model were performed
using the MetaXL software to estimate the pooled prevalence with 95% CI. PRISMA guidelines were
followed. A total of 18,251 publications were identifed, of which 15 met the inclusion criteria. The
prevalence of 55 long-term efects was estimated, 21 meta-analyses were performed, and 47,910
patients were included (age 17–87 years). The included studies defned long-COVID as ranging from 14
to 110 days post-viral infection. It was estimated that 80% of the infected patients with SARS-CoV-2
developed one or more long-term symptoms. The fve most common symptoms were fatigue (58%),
headache (44%), attention disorder (27%), hair loss (25%), and dyspnea (24%). Multi-disciplinary
teams are crucial to developing preventive measures, rehabilitation techniques, and clinical
management strategies with whole-patient perspectives designed to address long COVID-19 care.