Long COVID and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A survey of elderly female survivors in Egypt, 2021, Aly et al

[Wyva]

Abstract

Objectives
This study aimed to investigate post COVID 19 symptoms amongst elderly females and whether they could be a risk factor for developing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) later on.

Methods
This was a retrospective cross-sectional study, in the form of an online survey. A total of 115 responses were finally included.

Results
The mean age was 73.18±6.42. Eighty-nine reported symptoms in the post recovery period; of these 54 had no symptoms of CFS, 60 were possible, and only 1 was probable. Fatigue was reported by 66, musculoskeletal symptoms by 56, and sleep problems by 73. Twenty-nine patients visited a doctor’s office as a result. Post recovery symptoms were significantly related to stress, sadness and sleep disturbances. Also, stress, sadness, sleep disturbances, fatigue, cognitive impairment, and recurrent falls were all significantly associated with CFS like symptoms.

Conclusions
From our findings the presence of fatigue, cognitive impairment, stress, sadness, sleep disturbances, and recurrent falls in the post-recovery period were all significantly associated with CFS like symptoms. To conclude it would be reasonable to screen for Long COVID and consider the potential for developing CFS later on. Whether it can be a risk factor for developing CFS like other viral infections will need more larger scale studies to confirm this.

Open access (PDF): https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ijcp.14886

 

[Milo]

Say whaaaaat? Sadness is and falling is associated with CFS? maybe all of the ladies that fell also wore glasses, but they didn’t ask that question. Why they decided to exclude the gentlemen, i don’t know. Maybe they don’t fall and it would have skewed the p value.

 

[Sean]

Falling could be a secondary symptom in the elderly. If you are already getting unsteady on your feet, something like CFS could significantly exacerbate it. Similar possibilities for other common symptoms of ageing, like lower quality sleep, cognition, coordination, stamina, vision issues, etc.

 

[Snow Leopard]

"retrospective cross-sectional study" (of an online convenience sample, no less)... Which are only ever of "suggestive" quality...

 

[Kitty]

Sadness is and falling is associated with CFS?

Sadness is associated with any downturn in health, surely? (Though perhaps you're asking why something so blindingly obvious would be noted in a study!)

Falls due to ME aren't limited to people who're elderly or visually impaired. If a moderately-affected person's leg muscles suddenly become unreliable, they're likely to fall however old they are; a severely affected person's muscles might always be unreliable enough to result in falls if they're not supported when moving. Same goes with ME-related dizziness, which tends to get worse with PEM. I had my first fracture due to an ME fall when I was in my 20s, and have been merrily stumbling, colliding, and arriving at unscheduled appointments with the floor for more than four decades now.

 

[Trish]

The don't seem to specify anywhere what criteria they used for diagnosing CFS. There is no mention of post exertional malaise or any description of anything like PEM in the paper as far as I can see.

It seems to be just a questionnaire filling exercise looking at the range of symptoms experienced by older women post covid infection, with no timescales for how long the symptoms lasted. It seems to me to be of limited value.

 

[Arnie Pye]

Say whaaaaat? Sadness is and falling is associated with CFS?

I have seen a reference to gait disorder in Functional Neurological Disorder recently. Perhaps some descriptions of CFS include it as well. Gait disorder makes it harder to walk and almost certainly increases the incidence of falling. Ever since I joined this forum and started reading some of the research and articles on CFS I've realised that authors tack on random symptoms to their own personal definitions of CFS whenever they feel like it.

 

[Mithriel]

Gait problems is one of the symptoms of ME that is ignored since the emphasis on fatigue. All these other symptoms that people with ME realise they share when they talk to each other are the ones that are used against us to reclassify us as FND or pervasive disorder in children. Because these are not fatigue so can't be part of a syndrome caused by deconditioning.

 

[chrisb]

It could be that a gait disorder is a set of symptoms occurring within PEM. I doubt if it would have been considered at all abnormal in ME before 1987, or possibly 1991.