Characteristic Symptoms and Associated Risk Factors of COVID-19 Reinfection in the Indonesian Community

The Coronavirus disease 2019 ¹ global pandemic is transmitted through respiratory droplets from infected people. We aim to determine the risk factors for COVID-19 reinfection, and the degree of its severity in patients reinfected with it.

We conducted a cross-sectional study on COVID-19 reinfection in Semarang, Indonesia using the two-stage sampling technique. There were a total of 312 participants. We used logistic regression tests for multivariate analysis of reinfection risk associated with various factors. The study spanned from June 2022 to October 2022.

We found that symptoms such as cough and sore throat, seen during first infection, often recurred during reinfection. The fixed multivariate result showed that males (OR 3.863; 95% CI 1.459-10.234; P = 0.007), persons having comorbidities (OR 2.382; 95% CI 1.025-5.536; P = 0.044), health workers (OR 32.881; 95% CI 3.120-346.566; P = 0.004) or non-health workers (OR 21.661; 95% CI 2.192-214.034; P = 0.008), persons with mild symptoms (OR 6.503; 95% CI 2.771-15.264; P < 0.001) or moderate symptoms (OR 43.408; 95% CI 5.963-315.980; P < 0.001) at first COVID-19 infection, persons displaying poor rule-following behavior (OR 4.162; 95% CI 1.569-11.037; P = 0.004) and having only a middle school education (OR 0.303; 95% CI 0.098-0.93; P = 0.037) were highly related parameters associated with COVID-19 reinfection.

Thus, we found that males having comorbidities, employed in public jobs (health and non-health workers), with mild or moderate severity during first infection, and displaying poor rule-following behavior hold the highest risk factors for COVID-19 reinfection. Interestingly, having at least a middle school education seems to be a protective factor against COVID-19 reinfection.