Having any of these long COVID risk factors as described by a new study published today by the UK and Swedish scientists in Nature Communications.

Long COVID, also known as post-acute COVID syndrome, is typically described as having one or more COVID-19 symptoms four weeks after infection. Although the illness has received a lot of media attention, its occurrence and risk factors remain poorly understood. This is partly because the symptoms that are used to describe chronic COVID vary frequently across studies, which are commonly based on small samples and might not be generalizable to the general population.

Ellen Thompson and colleagues examined data from 6,907 people with self-reported COVID-19 from 10 population-based longitudinal health surveys in the UK that had been created before the pandemic to look into instances of prolonged COVID.

In addition, they used information from electronic health records that had been gathered by the spring of 2021 for 1.1 million people who had been diagnosed with COVID-19.

According to the researchers, 7.8% to 17% of suspected COVID-19 cases in the longitudinal surveys reported symptoms for more than 12 weeks, with 1.2-4.8% reporting “debilitating” symptoms.

Furthermore, they discovered that just 0.4% of COVID-19 cases in the electronic health records received a later long COVID-related diagnosis or referral; nevertheless, they make note that diagnoses codes for long COVID had only been established in healthcare settings in December 2020.

Although long COVID was reported differently in different trials, the authors contend that long COVID risk climbed with age up to 70. In both longitudinal studies and health records, female sex, poorer pre-pandemic mental health and general health, obesity, and asthma were identified as risk factors.

Although causal inferences cannot be made, the authors warn that their findings underscore the need for more study of at-risk groups. Additionally, they recommend the need for more representative population-based research to help with healthcare planning and improve estimates.

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