Long COVID burden and risk factors in 10 UK longitudinal studies and electronic health records, 2022, Thompson et al

[Andy]

Abstract

The frequency of, and risk factors for, long COVID are unclear among community-based individuals with a history of COVID-19. To elucidate the burden and possible causes of long COVID in the community, we coordinated analyses of survey data from 6907 individuals with self-reported COVID-19 from 10 UK longitudinal study (LS) samples and 1.1 million individuals with COVID-19 diagnostic codes in electronic healthcare records (EHR) collected by spring 2021. Proportions of presumed COVID-19 cases in LS reporting any symptoms for 12+ weeks ranged from 7.8% and 17% (with 1.2 to 4.8% reporting debilitating symptoms). Increasing age, female sex, white ethnicity, poor pre-pandemic general and mental health, overweight/obesity, and asthma were associated with prolonged symptoms in both LS and EHR data, but findings for other factors, such as cardio-metabolic parameters, were inconclusive.

Open access, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-30836-0

 

[Snow Leopard]

The problem is that few meaningful factors can actually be gleaned from medical records. Combined with any and all prolonged symptoms being considered long-covid, (rather than distinct and well-defined syndromes) studies like this tell us very little.

 

[Arnie Pye]

female sex

Sometimes I wish that gender wasn't collected about certain types of trials and research papers. I have a strong suspicion that gender is used to decide whether something is important or not. If something is mostly relevant to females then it isn't deemed important or urgent.

 

[LarsSG]

I think this is a useful study as it gives us an idea of the ratio of people self-reporting Long Covid (8-17% for any symptom 12+ weeks, 1.2–4.8% for limiting day-to-day function 12+ weeks) versus the number of people with a LC diagnosis in the health records (0.4%), at least in the UK.