Fig. 3: The total scores of the quality of life and functioning questionnaire and its changes compared to the situation before COVID-19.
Through an online questionnaire based on the WHO’s standardized case report form ref. 37, the quality of life and functioning was scored on a 5-grade scale from “no difficulty” (0) to “extreme difficulty/cannot do” (4) (maximum sum of points 48) (a). Furthermore, the QoL-F items were compared to the situation before COVID-19 on a 3-point scale (better: -1 point, same: 0 point, worse: 1 point) to measure changes in QoL-F (max: 12 points) (b). Higher scores mean a worse quality of life in both cases. Mean ± SEM of 88 patients with long COVID syndrome (LCS) and 32 COVID+ and 8 COVID- controls were plotted. For statistical analysis, the Mann–Whitney U test was performed (*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ns: no significant difference).
