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

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.

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.

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 > 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 >10 days/month, respectively), and 44.8% thought that long COVID-19 negatively affected their GPA.

Post-COVID-19 syndrome was associated with diabetes, bronchial asthma, and vitamin D deficiency, odd ratios, 95% CI, 0.011-0.910, 0.005-0.312, 0.203-0.821, respectively, P values > 0.05. No significant association was found regarding, age, gender, and smoking, P values >0.05.