Physical and mental health disability associated with long-COVID: Baseline results from a US nationwide cohort 2022 Lau et al

Abstract

Importance
Persistent symptoms after SARS-COV-2 infection, or long-COVID, may occur in anywhere from 10-55% of those who have had COVID-19, but the extent of impact on daily functioning and disability remains unquantified.

Objective
To characterize physical and mental disability associated with long-COVID

Design
Cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from a cohort study

Setting
Online US nationwide survey

Participants
Adults 18 years of age and older who live in the US who either report a history of COVID-19 illness (n=8,874) or report never having had COVID-19 (n=633)

Main Outcome and Measures
Self-reported mobility disability (difficulty walking a quarter of a mile and/or up 10 stairs, instrumental activities of daily living [IADL] disability (difficulty doing light or heavy housework), and mental fatigue as measured by the Wood Mental Fatigue Inventory (WMFI).

Results
Of 7,926 participants with long-COVID, the median age was 45 years, 84% were female, 89% self-reported white race, and 7.4% self-reported Hispanic/Latino ethnicity. Sixty-five percent of long-COVID participants were classified as having at least one disability, compared to 6% of those with resolved-COVID (n=948) and 14% of those with no-COVID (n=633). Of long-COVID participants, about 1% and 5% were classified as critically physically disabled or mentally fatigued, respectively. Age, prior comorbidity, increased BMI, female gender, hospitalization for COVID-19, non-white race, and multi-race were all associated with significantly higher disability burden. Dizziness at the time of infection (33% non-hospitalized, 39% hospitalized) was associated with all five disability components in both hospitalized and non-hospitalized groups. Heavy limbs, dyspnea, and tremors were associated with four of the five components of disability in the non-hospitalized group, and heavy limbs was associated with four of the five components in the hospitalized group. Vaccination was protective against development of disability.

Conclusion and Relevance
We observed a high burden of physical and mental disability associated with long-COVID which has serious implications for individual and societal health that may be partially mitigated by vaccination. Longitudinal characterization and evaluation of COVID-19 patients is necessary to identify patterns of recovery and treatment options.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.12.07.22283203v1

 

This really feels like a scene of disaster where first-responders take turns going in to check if the disaster is still ongoing, report back that it is, and that's it. Next time around it's someone else, reports back it's still ongoing. Nothing else happens. One at a time. Never increasing any of the effort. Never looking in a different way, always from the same door that provides a poor view inside.

The world's least mysterious mystery.

And of course it's the pseudoscience open studies with dubious methodologies selling hopium that get the biggest PR push.

 

Now published.

Paywall, https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(23)00540-5/fulltext