• Menna A E G Aly and Heba G Saber.
• Geriatrics and Gerontology department, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
• Int. J. Clin. Pract. 2021 Dec 1; 75 (12): e14886.

ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate post-COVID-19 symptoms amongst elderly females and whether they could be a risk factor for developing chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) later on.MethodsThis was a retrospective cross-sectional study, in the form of an online survey. A total of 115 responses were finally included.ResultsThe mean age was 73.18 ± 6.42. Eighty-nine reported symptoms in the post-recovery period; of these 54 had no symptoms of CFS, 60 were possible, and only 1 was probable. Fatigue was reported by 66, musculoskeletal symptoms by 56, and sleep problems by 73. Twenty-nine patients visited a doctor's office as a result. Post-recovery symptoms were significantly related to stress, sadness and sleep disturbances. Also, stress, sadness, sleep disturbances, fatigue, cognitive impairment, and recurrent falls were all significantly associated with CFS-like symptoms.ConclusionsFrom our findings, the presence of fatigue, cognitive impairment, stress, sadness, sleep disturbances and recurrent falls in the post-recovery period were all significantly associated with CFS-like symptoms. To conclude it would be reasonable to screen for long COVID and consider the potential for developing CFS later on. Whether it can be a risk factor for developing CFS-like other viral infections will need more larger scale studies to confirm this.© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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