Up to 1 in 6 people with COVID-19 report long symptoms of COVID

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One in six middle-aged people (17%) who report being infected with SARS-CoV-2 also report long symptoms of COVID, as the number drops to one in 13 (7.8%) among young adults who have reported having COVID-19, according to a new study by researchers at UCL and King’s College London.

Preliminary results, which are part of the UKRI-NIHR-funded multi-agency recovery study submitted to the medRxiv preprint server, also found that women were 50% more likely to report long-term COVID than men. , and that the risk of long-term COVID symptoms increases with age, is linked to mental disorders and physical health and is associated with a previous diagnosis of asthma. Non-white ethnic minority groups were less likely to report long-term COVID (about 70% less likely).

Using a stricter definition of long COVID as impacting routine daily activities, researchers found that it affected 1.2% of 20-year-olds who had COVID-19, but 4.8% of middle-aged people.

Researchers analyzed anonymized data from 1.2 million primary health records across the UK as well as 10 population-based cohort studies with 45,096 participants. Using existing cohort studies, whose participants are interviewed regularly, allowed the research team to include cases not reported to the GP and examine people’s health before the pandemic.

Professor Nishi Chaturvedi (MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Aging at UCL), who is leading the ongoing recovery study, said: We know so little about the long COVID. “

Dr Claire Steves of King’s College London, lead author of the article, said: “Knowing which factors increase the risk of COVID long is an important first step in understanding the best way to prevent and treat this disease.”

First author Dr Dylan Williams (MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Aging at UCL) said: “Putting together this body of evidence would typically take several months or years to put together, but here we are. arrived more quickly thanks to a massive and constant collaboration of researchers from many establishments.

“Our results hint at the mechanisms behind the long COVID. Next, we need to identify predispositions that might explain, for example, why women or people with asthma appear to be at higher risk. The possibility of suffering from autoimmunity or d allergies play a role “Establishing concrete research avenues to explore will ultimately be beneficial for people with long-standing COVID.”

The first author, Dr Ellen Thompson, of King’s College London, said: “It is really important to identify risk factors in the population so that we can prepare and design prevention strategies, protecting those at risk. increased poor results from COVID-19. “

The study is part of the National Longitudinal COVID-19 Health and Well-Being Baseline Study, which studies the health, social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic by combining rich pre-COVID data collected among participants of numerous national research studies with anonymized national electronic health records.

Researchers investigated whether the risks of developing long-term COVID symptoms differed according to several pre-pandemic socio-economic and health characteristics. Coordinated analyzes of longitudinal studies and health record data have consistently shown that female sex and increasing age (up to 70) were associated with an increased likelihood of long-term COVID.

Pre-existing mental health issues were associated with a 50% increase in the chances of reporting long-lasting COVID-19, while asthma was the only specific prior medical condition consistently associated with an increased risk of developing long-lasting symptoms of COVID- 19 (an increase of 32%). Participants were identified as having pre-existing mental health issues if they had been diagnosed with a number of disorders such as depression and bipolar disorder, or if their questionnaire responses indicated they had a problem with it. mental health before the pandemic.

The analysis was conducted on 6,899 people self-reported COVID-19 among 45,096 adult participants interviewed as part of ongoing longitudinal studies in the UK, and out of 3,327 cases a long COVID code was assigned in primary care electronics. health records of 1,199,812 adults diagnosed with acute COVID-19. Long COVID, identified as post-COVID-19 syndrome in the study, is defined as symptoms that persist for more than 12 weeks after the initial infection.

The research team included researchers from the universities of Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford, as well as the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Bradford Royal Infirmary.

Dr Fiona Glen, program director for the NICE Center for Guidelines, said: “We still don’t know a lot about the long-term effects of COVID-19. We continue to monitor and evaluate the latest long-term evidence. effects allowing us to constantly update our recommendations. We welcome this new research which will allow us to better understand how to manage the care and treatment of patients with prolonged symptoms of COVID-19. ”