Long-term health impacts of COVID-19 among 242,712 adults in England

Journal article

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a lasting impact on health and well-being. We compare current self-reported health, quality of life and symptom profiles for people with ongoing symptoms following COVID-19 to those who have never tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection and those who have recovered from COVID-19. Overall, 276,840/800,000 (34·6%) of invited participants took part. Mental health and health-related quality of life were worse among participants with ongoing persistent symptoms post-COVID compared with those who had never had COVID-19 or had recovered. In this study, median duration of COVID-related symptoms (N = 130,251) was 1·3 weeks (inter-quartile range 6 days to 2 weeks), with 7·5% and 5·2% reporting ongoing symptoms ≥12 weeks and ≥52 weeks respectively. Female sex, ≥1 comorbidity and being infected when Wild-type variant was dominant were associated with higher probability of symptoms lasting ≥12 weeks and longer recovery time in those with persistent symptoms. Although COVID-19 is usually of short duration, some adults experience persistent and burdensome illness.

Authors: Atchison, CJ; Davies, B; Cooper, E; Lound, A; Whitaker, M

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Journal: Nature Communications
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 6588-6588
• Article number: 6588
• Publication date: 2023-10-24
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41879-2
• EISSN: 2041-1723
• ISSN: 2041-1723
• Language: English
• Keywords: Virology; Disease; Quality of life (healthcare); Gerontology; Quartile; Pandemic; Confidence interval; Demography; Young adult; Psychiatry; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2); Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); Medicine; Outbreak; Pediatrics; Comorbidity; 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak; Internal medicine; Mental health; Depression (economics)