Review Systematic review of post-COVID condition in Nordic population-based registry studies, 2025, Himmels et al

[forestglip]

Systematic review of post-COVID condition in Nordic population-based registry studies

Jan Peter William Himmels, Karin Magnusson, Kjetil Gundro Brurberg
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Abstract
The long-term effects of COVID-19, known as post-COVID condition (PCC), are still not fully understood. This systematic review synthesizes findings from Nordic registry studies to highlight long-term outcomes after COVID-19 infection.

Twenty-two studies, primarily reflecting the pre-omicron and early vaccination phases, reveal increased primary care use for respiratory issues and fatigue in the sub-acute and chronic phases, with PCC incidence estimated below 2% in the general population.

Most individuals returned to work within three months post-infection, and the risk of new neurological or mental disorders did not exceed that in patients with other infections.

The review demonstrates the value of high-quality Nordic health registries in capturing reliable, population-wide data, though generalizability may be limited to similar healthcare systems. Findings suggest the need for targeted follow-up in patients with severe COVID-19, particularly those requiring intensive care, to manage potential new-onset diseases and guide resource allocation in the pandemic’s endemic phase.

Web | PDF | Nature Communications | Open Access

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[Utsikt]

Thank you!

This has received some attention in Norway. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) that’s behind the study (and the home of Flottorp, Rørtveit, Larun, and Aavitsland), has framed it as covid not being a big deal.

They have previously said that covid is less worse than influenza (and the current vaccination program recommends covid vaccination to fewer people than the flu vaccine), but they found the opposite here:

Adult COVID-19 patients requiring ventilation support at the hospital were reported to have higher use of physiotherapy for six to nine months when compared to influenza patients with similar severity level19.

Sick leave after COVID-19 was higher than seen in influenza11. The probability of sustainable return to work was lower in ICU patients compared to non-ICU patients (HR 0.56; 95% CI 0.52–0.61) and higher in patients with COVID-19-related sepsis than in other sepsis patients (HR 1.31; 95% CI 1.15–1.49)28.

Arne Søraas, the leader of the Norwegian Corona Study, points out that the 2 % prevalence refers to an «reduced ability to work» after six months, so the lower prevalence is not contradictory to previous claims of a much higher prevalence of general reduced health following a covid infection.

And if the prevalence of being unable to work is just 2 %, it would still amount to 110,000 people per infection of the entire population. That’s a substantial amount of the increase in sick leave after 2021 and the end of the lockdown.

News article in Norwegian