Changes in cardiovascular health and physical functioning in non-hospitalized, adult COVID-19 patients after 3 years of follow-up

Vloet, JIA ORCID: 0009-0000-4001-5117, Bakker, EA, van der Sluijs, KM, Speretta, GF ORCID: 0000-0003-3474-1264, van der Horst, A, Eijsvogels, TMH and Thijssen, DHJ ORCID: 0000-0002-7707-5567 (2026) Changes in cardiovascular health and physical functioning in non-hospitalized, adult COVID-19 patients after 3 years of follow-up. Physiological Reports, 14 (8). ISSN 2051-817X

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Abstract

Long-term cardiovascular consequences of COVID-19 remain unclear, particularly in non-hospitalized individuals. We investigated longitudinal changes (~3 years) in cardiovascular risk factors, cardiac biomarkers, physical functioning, and activity in non-hospitalized COVID-19 individuals versus age- and sex-matched controls. Assessments were performed in 2021 (~6 months post-infection) and repeated 3 years after initial SARS-CoV-2 infection among 101 non-hospitalized COVID-19 participants and 101 healthy age- and sex-matched controls. Multiple imputation was adopted to adjust for missing data due to drop-out. Based on the absence (-) or presence (+) of infections during follow-up, four groups were created: COVID-19/- (n = 45), COVID-19/+ (n = 56), Control/- (n = 29), and Control/+ (n = 72). Additionally, sex-stratified analyses were performed. No changes were found in parameters related to cardiovascular risk factors, cardiac biomarkers, physical functioning and physical activity across the 3-year follow-up, showing no time × group effects for any of the outcomes (all p-values >0.05). Sex-stratified analyses and complete-case sensitivity analysis reinforced our results. Overall, we found no changes in cardiovascular risk factors, cardiac biomarkers, physical functioning and activity across a 3-year follow-up in non-hospitalized COVID-19 individuals compared to healthy controls, independent of infections during follow-up. This suggests that non-hospitalized COVID-19 did not induce long-term deleterious changes in cardiovascular health or physical characteristics.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	cardiovascular health; incident infection; long‐term effects; non‐severe COVID‐19; physical functioning; Humans; COVID-19; Male; Female; Middle Aged; Follow-Up Studies; Cardiovascular Diseases; Adult; Exercise; Heart Disease Risk Factors; Aged; SARS-CoV-2; Longitudinal Studies; Case-Control Studies; 32 Biomedical and Clinical Sciences; 3202 Clinical Sciences; Coronaviruses Disparities and At-Risk Populations; Women's Health; Clinical Research; Cardiovascular; Coronaviruses; Aging; Prevention; Health Disparities and Racial or Ethnic Minority Health Research; Heart Disease; Infectious Diseases; Emerging Infectious Diseases; Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) including Long COVID; Biodefense; 2.4 Surveillance and distribution; Cardiovascular; 3 Good Health and Well Being; Humans; COVID-19; Male; Female; Middle Aged; Follow-Up Studies; Cardiovascular Diseases; Adult; Exercise; Heart Disease Risk Factors; Aged; SARS-CoV-2; Longitudinal Studies; Case-Control Studies; 0606 Physiology; 1103 Clinical Sciences; 1116 Medical Physiology; 3208 Medical physiology
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC1200 Sports Medicine
Divisions:	Sport and Exercise Sciences
Publisher:	Wiley Open
Date of acceptance:	30 March 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	30 April 2026
Date Deposited:	30 Apr 2026 13:38
Last Modified:	30 Apr 2026 13:38
DOI or ID number:	10.14814/phy2.70868
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28505

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