Marco Viola, Silvia Testa, Carlotta Sacerdote+3 more · 2026 · Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · Springer · added 2026-04-24
The long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection are increasingly recognized, with heterogeneous physical and psychological symptoms that may persist for months, significantly affecting Health Related Qu Show more
The long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection are increasingly recognized, with heterogeneous physical and psychological symptoms that may persist for months, significantly affecting Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL), functional capacity, and psychosocial well-being. This study explores distinct profiles of HRQoL and psychological symptoms in former COVID-19 inpatients and assesses the impact of clinical variables at admission on long-term outcomes. Patients hospitalised for COVID-19 at Molinette Hospital in Turin were contacted several months post-discharge (between June 2022 and June 2023) to complete a questionnaire assessing long-term HRQoL, sleep quality, depression, anxiety, stress, and fatigue. Clinical data at the time of hospitalisation were also available for each participant. A Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was conducted on these physical and psychological variables, followed by multinomial logistic regression to examine how selected indicators of baseline COVID-19 severity and patient characteristics predicted profile membership. The sample consisted of 601 patients. LPA identified three health-related profiles: This study highlights a wide spectrum of post-COVID-19 conditions, ranging from good to severely compromised physical and mental health. Female gender, presence of comorbidities, and elevated early warning scores at hospital admission are risk factors for worse outcomes, emphasizing the need for comprehensive long-term care. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11136-026-04206-y. Show less
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a highly disabling syndrome defined by a low pain threshold and a permanent state of pain. The mechanisms explaining this complex disorder remain unclear, and its genetic factors Show more
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a highly disabling syndrome defined by a low pain threshold and a permanent state of pain. The mechanisms explaining this complex disorder remain unclear, and its genetic factors have not yet been identified. With the aim of elucidating FM genetic susceptibility factors, we selected 313 FM cases having low comorbidities, and we genotyped them on the Illumina 1 million duo array. Genotypic data from 220 control women (Illumina 610k array) was obtained for genome-wide association scan (GWAS) analysis. Copy number variants in FM susceptibility were analyzed by array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) experiments on pooled samples using the Agilent 2×400K platform. No single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) reached GWAS association threshold, but 21 of the most associated SNPs were chosen for replication in 952 cases and 644 controls. Four of the SNPs selected for replication showed a nominal association in the joint analysis, and rs11127292 (MYT1L) was found to be associated to FM with low comorbidities (P=4.28×10(-5), odds ratio [95% confidence interval]=0.58 [0.44-0.75]). aCGH detected 5 differentially hybridized regions. They were followed up, and an intronic deletion in NRXN3 was demonstrated to be associated to female cases of FM with low levels of comorbidities (P=.021, odds ratio [95% confidence interval]=1.46 [1.05-2.04]). Both GWAS and aCGH results point to a role for the central nervous system in FM genetic susceptibility. If the proposed FM candidate genes were further validated in replication studies, this would highlight a neurocognitive involvement in agreement with latest reports. Show less