Serious long-term health consequences of Q-fever and Legionnaires' disease.
BACKGROUND
We assessed and compared the long-term health status of Q-fever patients and patients with Legionnaires' disease.


METHODS
Q-fever patients and patients with Legionnaires' disease fulfilling the Dutch notification criteria filled out a questionnaire at one year after onset of illness. The proportion of patients with an abnormal score was calculated for 12 health status subdomains and mean scores for the most relevant subdomains were compared between the patient groups.


RESULTS
We included 309 Q-fever patients and 190 patients with Legionnaires' disease in the study. A large proportion of the two patient groups was negatively affected on many of the subdomains, especially 'Fatigue', 'General Quality of Life' and 'Role Physical'. We assessed health status of the patient groups using a multivariate regression analysis and found no significant difference for 'Fatigue' and 'General Quality of Life'. Only for the subdomain 'Role Physical', Q-fever patients scored significantly worse compared to patients with Legionnaires' disease.


CONCLUSIONS
Many Q-fever patients and patients with Legionnaires' disease suffer from a severely affected health status on one or more subdomains at one year after onset of illness. We recommend additional support for a large proportion of both patient groups during the first year after onset of illness.
Academic Collaborative Centre AMPHI, Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: joris.vanloenhout@radboudumc.nl.
Joris A F
JA
van Loenhout
Academic Collaborative Centre AMPHI, Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: hhmmvantiel@gmail.com.
Hein H M M
HH
van Tiel
Department of Infectious Disease Control, Municipal Health Service Hart voor Brabant, 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. Electronic address: j.vd.heuvel@ggdhvb.nl.
Jet
J
van den Heuvel
Department of Medical Psychology, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Department of Pulmonary Diseases, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: jan.vercoulen@radboudumc.nl.
Jan H
JH
Vercoulen
Academic Collaborative Centre AMPHI, Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: hans.bor@radboudumc.nl.
Hans
H
Bor
Academic Collaborative Centre AMPHI, Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: koos.vandervelden@radboudumc.nl.
Koos
K
van der Velden
Academic Collaborative Centre AMPHI, Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL), Utrecht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: john.paget@radboudumc.nl.
W John
WJ
Paget
Academic Collaborative Centre AMPHI, Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: jeannine.hautvast@radboudumc.nl.
Jeannine L A
JL
Hautvast
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005221:Fatigue / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007877:Legionnaires' Disease / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D011778:Q Fever / Q000150:complications*; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
Fatigue; Health status; Legionnaires' disease; Q-fever; Quality of life