Persistent symptoms in patients after COVID-19 and their relationship with quality of life and psychological well-being

IMT Lucca invites applications for a Research Fellowship in Psychological Sciences. IMT Lucca is seeking a motivated and enthusiastic candidate to participate in activities of a multicenter research project on persistent symptoms in patients who recovered from COVID-19 and their relationship with quality of life, mental health and psychological well-being. The project aims at measuring long lasting symptoms in 1000 patients discharged from hospitals after the remission of SARS-Cov-2 infection. Questionnaires will be used to assess residual symptoms, the presence of psychiatric disorders and to gather information regarding premorbid status, lifestyle (e.g., diet, smoking habits) and demographic variables (e.g., age, gender, education level). For each participant, multiple assessments will be collected within a 12-month follow-up period, providing sufficient data to (1) characterize the prevalence of long-COVID symptoms; (2) highlight significant relationships between persistence of symptoms and premorbid status; (3) reveal whether and to what extent long-term symptoms worsen quality of life and psychological well-being.

The ideal candidate must have at least a 1-year experience in the field of psychological research, should be able to collect data using validated psychometric tools for the assessment of psychological well-being, psychiatric symptoms and quality of life. The ideal candidate should also demonstrate to have thorough knowledge of relevant publications on long-COVID, COVID sequelae and on epidemiology of SARS-Cov-2 in general. The ideal candidate should also possess very good statistical (e.g., logistic regression, quantile regression, penalized least squares regression, factor
analysis) and computer programming skills (MATLAB is preferred). In addition, the ideal candidate must be able to draft technical reports summarizing analysis results and manuscripts.