Acute Muscle Mass Loss Predicts Long-Term Fatigue, Myalgia, and Health Care Costs in COVID-19 Survivors.
Saulo Gil, Gersiel Nascimento de Oliveira Júnior, Flavia Mori Sarti and 9 others
PMID 36493804WHAT IT FOUND
Hospitalized COVID-19 patients who lost more thigh muscle had more fatigue and muscle pain at 6 months and higher health care costs.
They did not have more of the other persistent symptoms.
Key findings
01Among 80 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, the high muscle loss group reported fatigue more often than the low muscle loss group, 76% vs 46%, and myalgia more often, 66% vs 36%.
02The high muscle loss group had higher total COVID-19-related health care costs than the low muscle loss group at 2 months, $77,283.87 vs $3057.14, and at 6 months, $90,001.35 vs $12,913.27.
03Patients with high muscle loss did not fully recover thigh muscle area at 6 months, while the low muscle loss group did.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study was observational, so it cannot show that muscle loss caused fatigue, myalgia, or higher costs. It included only 80 hospitalized adults with moderate to severe COVID-19, many with comorbidities, so results may not apply to milder illness or outpatient recovery. Symptoms and health care use were self-reported, which can introduce recall bias. Follow-up was short, only 2 and 6 months after discharge. No intervention was tested, so the paper does not show how to prevent or treat muscle loss. Cost estimates were converted into US dollars and used a payer perspective, so they may not match local costs.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that muscle loss caused fatigue, myalgia, or higher costs. This was an observational study, and no treatment was tested.