Open Access

Sina M. Hopff, Katharina S. Appel, Olga Miljukov, Johannes Schneider, Marylyn M. Addo, Robert Bals, Sven Bercker, Sabine Blaschke, Isabel Bröhl, Nikolaus Büchner, Hiwa Dashti, Johanna Erber, Anette Friedrichs, Ramsia Geisler, Siri Göpel, Marina Hagen, Frank Hanses, Björn-Erik Ole Jensen, Maria Keul, Adalbert Krawczyk, Bettina Lorenz-Depiereux, Patrick Meybohm, Milena Milovanovic, Lazar Mitrov, Carolin Nürnberger, Wilfried Obst, Christoph Römmele, Christian Schäfer, Christian Scheer, Margarete Scherer, Julia Schmidt, Kristina Seibel, Shimita Sikdar, Johannes Josef Tebbe, Phil-Robin Tepasse, Philipp Thelen, Maria J. G. T. Vehreschild, Christina Weismantel, J. Janne Vehreschild

• Purpose The influence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants on the post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) remains unanswered. Therefore, we examined the prevalence and predictors of PCC-related symptoms in patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 variants delta or omicron. Methods We compared prevalences and risk factors of acute and PCC-related symptoms three months after primary infection (3MFU) between delta- and omicron-infected patients from the Cross-Sectoral Platform of the German National Pandemic Cohort Network. Health-related quality of life (HrQoL) was determined by the EQ-5D-5L index score and trend groups were calculated to describe changes of HrQoL between different time points. Results We considered 758 patients for our analysis (delta: n = 341; omicron: n = 417). Compared with omicron patients, delta patients had a similar prevalence of PCC at the 3MFU (p = 0.354), whereby fatigue occurred most frequently (n = 256, 34%). HrQoL was comparable between the groups with the lowestPurpose The influence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants on the post-COVID-19 condition (PCC) remains unanswered. Therefore, we examined the prevalence and predictors of PCC-related symptoms in patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 variants delta or omicron. Methods We compared prevalences and risk factors of acute and PCC-related symptoms three months after primary infection (3MFU) between delta- and omicron-infected patients from the Cross-Sectoral Platform of the German National Pandemic Cohort Network. Health-related quality of life (HrQoL) was determined by the EQ-5D-5L index score and trend groups were calculated to describe changes of HrQoL between different time points. Results We considered 758 patients for our analysis (delta: n = 341; omicron: n = 417). Compared with omicron patients, delta patients had a similar prevalence of PCC at the 3MFU (p = 0.354), whereby fatigue occurred most frequently (n = 256, 34%). HrQoL was comparable between the groups with the lowest EQ-5D-5L index score (0.75, 95% CI 0.73–0.78) at disease onset. While most patients (69%, n = 348) never showed a declined HrQoL, it deteriorated substantially in 37 patients (7%) from the acute phase to the 3MFU of which 27 were infected with omicron. Conclusion With quality-controlled data from a multicenter cohort, we showed that PCC is an equally common challenge for patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 variants delta and omicron at least for the German population. Developing the EQ-5D-5L index score trend groups showed that over two thirds of patients did not experience any restrictions in their HrQoL due to or after the SARS-CoV-2 infection at the 3MFU. Clinical Trail registration The cohort is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov since February 24, 2021 (Identifier: NCT04768998).…