Long-Term Transformations in Human Values Following COVID-19 Hospitalization: A Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

Background: Hospitalization due to COVID-19 has imposed profound psychological, existential, and social challenges, prompting individuals to reevaluate and potentially revise their core human values. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the long-term impact of COVID-19 hospitalization on human values by examining patients’ lived experiences and identifying key shifts in personal, social, and existential values. Methods: A qualitative study informed by interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was conducted to explore how former patients hospitalized with COVID-19 interpreted and ascribed meaning to their hospitalization experiences. Twenty-three individuals with a history of hospitalization for COVID-19 were purposively recruited from post-discharge records and community follow-up networks to achieve maximum variation in age, gender, illness severity, and hospitalization experiences. Participants completed semi-structured, in-depth interviews guided by a researcher-developed interview protocol. Data collection continued until interpretative saturation was reached, defined as the point at which no substantially new experiential meanings or value-related themes emerged across successive interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis followed Smith, Flowers, and Larkin’s six-step IPA framework, including iterative reading, initial noting, development of emergent themes, clustering of superordinate themes, cross-case analysis, and interpretative synthesis. Trustworthiness was established using Lincoln and Guba’s criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability, supported by member checking, peer debriefing, reflexive journaling, and the maintenance of an audit trail. Results: IPA identified six interrelated superordinate themes reflecting enduring transformations in human values following COVID-19 hospitalization: 1) Existential Reorientation; 2) Self-Reconstruction and Personal Growth; 3) Relational and Social Connectedness; 4) Health as a Reconstructed Core Value; 5) Reconfiguration of Daily Life and Social Roles; and 6) Societal, Ethical, and Institutional Reappraisal. Participants described hospitalization as a profound existential disruption that challenged previously held assumptions about mortality, identity, relationships, health, and society. Through reflection and meaning-making, individuals reinterpreted vulnerability, reconstructed personal priorities, strengthened interpersonal connections, developed a greater commitment to health and self-care, reassessed work–life balance, and critically evaluated social institutions and collective responsibilities. Across narratives, value transformation emerged not as a discrete outcome of illness but as an ongoing interpretive process through which participants renegotiated their understanding of themselves, others, and the broader social world following severe illness. Conclusions: COVID-19 hospitalization constitutes a profound, life-altering experience that can reshape human values across psychological, social, ethical, and existential domains. Beyond immediate recovery, participants engaged in an enduring process of meaning-making and value reconstruction that influenced their perceptions of themselves, others, and society. These findings underscore the importance of integrating psychosocial and existential dimensions into post-COVID care and may inform the development of interventions, clinical frameworks, and public health policies aimed at supporting long-term recovery and adaptation following major health crises.