TABLE 2. Symptoms reported on the date of SARS-CoV-2 test in outpatients and inpatients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (N = 316) at 14–21 days or 28–35 days after testing — 11 academic medical centers,* United States, March–May 2020.
| Characteristic† | No. (%) |
P-value | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All (316) | Outpatients (248) | Inpatients (68) | ||
|
Reported any symptom§
|
292 (92%)
|
238 (96%) |
54 (79%) |
N/A |
|
Symptoms reported¶
| ||||
| Median no. of symptoms (IQR) |
7 (4–10)
|
7 (4–10) |
8 (4–10) |
0.18 |
| Fever |
167 (57)
|
131 (55) |
36 (68) |
0.086 |
| Shortness of breath |
114 (39)
|
76 (32) |
38 (72) |
<0.001 |
| Cough |
182 (63)
|
147 (62) |
35 (69) |
0.36 |
| Productive |
91 (50)
|
72 (49) |
19 (54) |
0.57 |
| Bloody |
16 (9)
|
10 (7) |
6 (17) |
0.054 |
| Chest pain |
82 (28)
|
60 (25) |
22 (42) |
0.014 |
| Pleuritic pain |
61 (76)
|
43 (74) |
18 (82) |
0.47 |
| Abdominal pain |
55 (19)
|
42 (18) |
13 (25) |
0.20 |
| Nausea |
93 (32)
|
73 (31) |
20 (38) |
0.28 |
| Vomiting |
35 (12)
|
24 (10) |
11 (21) |
0.027 |
| Diarrhea |
109 (38)
|
91 (38) |
18 (35) |
0.61 |
| Chills |
156 (54)
|
124 (52) |
32 (60) |
0.29 |
| Body aches |
167 (58)
|
138 (58) |
29 (56) |
0.72 |
| Headache |
171 (60)
|
146 (62) |
25 (48) |
0.062 |
| Confusion |
41 (14)
|
35 (15) |
6 (12) |
0.53 |
| Fatigue |
198 (69)
|
164 (70) |
34 (65) |
0.54 |
| Congestion |
110 (38)
|
91 (39) |
19 (37) |
0.77 |
| Sore throat |
89 (31)
|
73 (31) |
16 (31) |
0.97 |
| Loss of smell |
140 (49)
|
122 (52) |
18 (35) |
0.031 |
| Loss of taste |
143 (50)
|
122 (52) |
21 (41) |
0.16 |
| Loss of smell, taste, or both |
163 (56)
|
140 (59) |
23 (43) |
0.030 |
| Returned to baseline health by interview date** | 170 (60) | 150 (64) | 20 (39) | 0.001 |
Abbreviations: IQR = interquartile range; N/A = not applicable.
* Patients were sampled from 11 academic medical centers in nine states (University of Washington [Washington], Oregon Health and Sciences University [Oregon], University of California Los Angeles and Stanford University [California], Hennepin County Medical Center [Minnesota], Vanderbilt University [Tennessee], The Ohio State University [Ohio], Wake Forest University [North Carolina], Montefiore Medical Center [New York], Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Baystate Medical Center [Massachusetts]).
† Among 350 patients who had positive test results for SARS-CoV-2 and responded, 19 (5%) who reported a previous positive SARS-CoV-2 test result before the current test (10 outpatients and nine inpatients) were excluded. An additional 15 (4%) were excluded who did not answer symptom questions during the call 14–21 days after testing (five) or who only responded to the follow-up call at 28-35 days after testing, which did not include symptom questions (10).
§ Four percent (10 of 250) of outpatients reporting no symptoms were tested because of a job requirement (four), being a close contact of a COVID-19 patient (three), requirement before a scheduled surgery (two), and voluntarily tested because of advanced age and underlying medical conditions (one); 21% (14 of 66) of inpatients reporting no symptoms were tested while hospitalized for unrelated reasons, including six pregnant women hospitalized for delivery and eight for other reasons.
¶ Among 292 respondents who reported one or more symptoms, some respondents were missing data on individual symptoms: fever (one), shortness of breath (one), cough (three), chest pain (three), abdominal pain (four), nausea (three), vomiting (three), diarrhea (three), chills (two), body aches (four), headache (five), confusion (six), fatigue (five), congestion (five), sore throat (five), loss of smell (six), loss of taste (seven); denominators used to calculate proportions of respondents with individual symptoms excluded patients who had missing data for the symptom.
** Eight responses on return to baseline health were missing.