text: Long Term Impact of COVID 19 A Systematic Review of the Literature and Meta Analysis The long term impact of COVID 19 is still unknown This study aimed to explore post COVID 19 effects on patients chest computed tomography CT lung function respiratory symptoms fatigue functional capacity health related quality of life HRQoL and the ability to return to work beyond 3 months post infection A systematic search was performed on PubMed Web of Science and Ovid MEDLINE on 22 May 2021 to identify studies that reported persistent effects of COVID 19 beyond 3 months follow up Data on the proportion of patients who had the outcome were collected and analyzed using a one group meta analysis Data were extracted from 24 articles that presented information on a total of 5323 adults post infection between 3 to 6 months after symptom onset or hospital discharge The pooled prevalence of CT abnormalities was 59 95 CI 44 73 I sup 2 sup 96 abnormal lung function was 39 95 CI 24 55 I sup 2 sup 94 fatigue was 38 95 CI 27 49 I sup 2 sup 98 dyspnea was 32 95 CI 24 40 I sup 2 sup 98 chest paint tightness was 16 95 CI 12 21 I sup 2 sup 94 and cough was 13 95 CI 9 17 I sup 2 sup 94 Decreased functional capacity and HRQoL were found in 36 95 CI 22 49 I sup 2 sup 97 and 52 95 CI 33 71 I sup 2 sup 94 respectively On average 8 out of 10 of the patients had returned to work or reported no work impairment Post COVID 19 patients may experience persistent respiratory symptoms fatigue decreased functional capacity and decreased quality of life up to 6 months after infection Further studies are needed to establish the extent to which post COVID 19 effects continue beyond 6 months how they interact with each other and to clarify their causes and their effective management 