Topline
The risk of long Covid is higher among women, older people, white people and individuals with certain pre-existing health conditions, a new study released Tuesday in U.K. journal Nature found, as more research sheds light on how lingering Covid symptoms affect people recovering from the illness over the long-term.
New research published in U.K. research journal Nature Communications finds the likelihood of … [+] experiencing long-term Covid symptoms increases for women, white people, older people and individuals with general and mental health issues. (Photo by MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP via Getty Images)
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Key Facts
The study of 6,907 individuals with self-reported Covid-19 and 1.1 million individuals with a Covid-19 diagnosis recorded in electronic healthcare systems collected last spring found 7.8% to 17% of people with Covid-19 showed “long Covid” symptoms longer than 12 weeks, including 1.2% to 4.8% with “debilitating symptoms.”
Symptoms include fatigue, memory issues, breathing issues and altered or lost sense of smell or taste – for weeks or months.
Women are nearly two-thirds more likely to exhibit long-term symptoms (457.9 cases per 100,000) as men (312.3 cases), researchers found, using primary-care data from OpenSAFELY.
White respondents showed the greatest likelihood of contracting long Covid (414.9 cases per 100,000), followed by people who identified as mixed-race (390.5), South Asian (305.3), Black (281.2) and people of other races not specified in the study (319.8).
Mental health also played a key role, with an average of 614.6 cases of long-term symptoms out of 100,000 people with at least one mental health disorder, compared to 330.7 for people without a mental health disorder.
Key Background
The study comes one week after a report from the Dutch Center for Infectious Disease Control found 50% of study participants showed one or more symptoms three months after infection. That study also found no difference in long Covid symptoms – except for the loss of smell and taste – between vaccinated and unvaccinated people under 65. In May, the CDC found one in five people with Covid may develop long Covid – although a Washington University School of Medicine study of 13 million veterans found vaccinations could cut that risk by 15%. Data from the U.K. Office for General Statistics similarly found the odds of long Covid drop by 13% after a single vaccine dose.
Further Reading
How Does Long Covid After Omicron Look? (Forbes)
