Prevalence and risk factors for post-COVID-19 syndrome on medical students in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia-2023-2024

DOI record: { "DOI": "10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_2017_24", "ISSN": [ "2249-4863", "2278-7135" ], "URL": "http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_2017_24", "abstract": "<jats:title>A<jats:sc>BSTRACT</jats:sc>\n </jats:title>\n <jats:sec>\n <jats:title>Background:</jats:title>\n <jats:p>COVID-19 has infected 221 million individuals worldwide and new strains are discovered continuously. An important complication is the post-COVID-19 syndrome that affects various organs with substantial morbidities. Studies on post-COVID-19 symptoms and risk factors are scarce. We aimed to assess the same among medical students at the University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.</jats:p>\n </jats:sec>\n <jats:sec>\n <jats:title>Methodology:</jats:title>\n <jats:p>This cross-sectional study was conducted among 424 medical students at the University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, during the period from July 2023 to October 2024. A web-based questionnaire detailing the demographic factors, post-COVID-19 symptoms, comorbidities, vitamin D deficiency, and the cumulative grade average (GPA) was used.</jats:p>\n </jats:sec>\n <jats:sec>\n <jats:title>Results:</jats:title>\n <jats:p>Out of the 424 students, 38.2% were overweight and 9.4% were obese, 26.9% had bronchial asthma, and diabetes was found in 11.8%. Smoking was observed in 25%, and 58.5% were vitamin D deficient, while 22.6% were hospitalized with COVID-19. The majority of students received &gt; two doses (74.1%), 24.5% received two doses, and 1.4% received one dose. The majority (80.7%) of students reported at least one post-COVID-19 symptom, and headache was the commonest symptom (63.7%), followed by cough in 50.5%. The absence from classrooms was 54.2%, 32.1%, and 13.7% (3 days, 3-8 days, and &gt;10 days/month, respectively), and 44.8% thought that long COVID-19 negatively affected their GPA.</jats:p>\n </jats:sec>\n <jats:sec>\n <jats:title>Conclusion:</jats:title>\n <jats:p>Post-COVID-19 syndrome was associated with diabetes, bronchial asthma, and vitamin D deficiency, odd ratios, 95% <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">CI</jats:italic>, 0.011-0.910, 0.005-0.312, 0.203-0.821, respectively, <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">P</jats:italic> values &gt; 0.05. No significant association was found regarding, age, gender, and smoking, <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">P</jats:italic> values &gt;0.05.</jats:p>\n </jats:sec>", "assertion": [ { "group": { "label": "Publication History", "name": "publication_history" }, "label": "Received", "name": "received", "value": "2024-12-10" }, { "group": { "label": "Publication History", "name": "publication_history" }, "label": "Accepted", "name": "accepted", "value": "2025-05-07" } ], "author": [ { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" } ], "family": "Begum", "given": "Shamina", "sequence": "first" }, { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Internal Medicine and Endocrine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" } ], "family": "Mirghani", "given": "Hyder O.", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" } ], "family": "Alhowiti", "given": "Amirah", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Internal Medicine, University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" } ], "family": "Alrasheed", "given": "Tariq", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [ { "name": "Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Northern Border University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" } ], "family": "Sulaiman", "given": "Ahmed H. A.", "sequence": "additional" } ], "container-title": "Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care", "content-domain": { "crossmark-restriction": true, "domain": [ "lww.com", "ovid.com" ] }, "created": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 9, 27 ] ], "date-time": "2025-09-27T21:00:54Z", "timestamp": 1759006854000 }, "deposited": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 10, 9 ] ], "date-time": "2025-10-09T13:03:51Z", "timestamp": 1760015031000 }, "indexed": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 10, 10 ] ], "date-time": "2025-10-10T00:38:03Z", "timestamp": 1760056683911, "version": "build-2065373602" }, "is-referenced-by-count": 0, "issue": "9", "issued": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 9 ] ] }, "journal-issue": { "issue": "9", "published-print": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025 ] ] } }, "language": "en", "license": [ { "URL": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0", "content-version": "unspecified", "delay-in-days": 0, "start": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 9, 1 ] ], "date-time": "2025-09-01T00:00:00Z", "timestamp": 1756684800000 } } ], "link": [ { "URL": "https://journals.lww.com/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_2017_24", "content-type": "unspecified", "content-version": "vor", "intended-application": "similarity-checking" } ], "member": "276", "original-title": [], "page": "3729-3734", "prefix": "10.4103", "published": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 9 ] ] }, "published-online": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 9, 29 ] ] }, "published-print": { "date-parts": [ [ 2025, 9 ] ] }, "publisher": "Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)", "reference": [ { "DOI": "10.1016/j.msard.2021.103268", "article-title": "Long COVID or post COVID-19 syndrome", "author": "Lechner-Scott", "doi-asserted-by": "crossref", "first-page": "103268", "journal-title": "Mult Scler Relat Disord", "key": "R1-20251009", "volume": "55", "year": "2021" }, { "DOI": "10.3906/sag-2106-238", "article-title": "Post-COVID syndrome: pulmonary complications", "author": "Esendağli", "doi-asserted-by": "crossref", "first-page": "3359", "issue": "SI-1", "journal-title": "Turk J Med Sci", "key": "R2-20251009", "volume": "51", "year": "2021" }, { "DOI": "10.1038/s41467-020-19943-y", "article-title": "Dynamic changes in anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies during SARS-CoV-2 infection and recovery from COVID-19", "author": "Li", "doi-asserted-by": "crossref", "first-page": "6044", "journal-title": "Nat Commun", "key": "R3-20251009", "volume": "11", "year": "2020" }, { "DOI": "10.1007/s12028-020-01049-4", "article-title": "Neurological involvement in COVID-19 and potential mechanisms: A review", "author": "Aghagoli", "doi-asserted-by": "crossref", "first-page": "1062", "journal-title": "Neurocrit Care", "key": "R4-20251009", "volume": "34", "year": "2021" }, { "DOI": "10.1007/s43440-022-00424-6", "article-title": "Neurological consequences of COVID-19", "author": "Brola", "doi-asserted-by": "crossref", "first-page": "1208", "journal-title": "Pharmacol Rep", "key": "R5-20251009", "volume": "74", "year": "2022" }, { "article-title": "Assessment and treatment of older individuals with COVID-19 multi-system disease: Clinical and ethical implications", "author": "Lauretani", "first-page": "150", "journal-title": "Acta Biomed", "key": "R6-20251009", "volume": "91", "year": "2020" }, { "DOI": "10.1152/ajprenal.00173.2021", "article-title": "Overview of acute kidney manifestations and management of patients with COVID-19", "author": "Menez", "doi-asserted-by": "crossref", "first-page": "F403", "journal-title": "Am J Physiol Renal Physiol", "key": "R7-20251009", "volume": "321", "year": "2021" }, { "DOI": "10.1016/j.transproceed.2021.07.054", "article-title": "COVID-19 and heart transplantation. 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