Scientists from the Luxembourg Institute of Health found that six in ten people with COVID-19 still have at least one symptom a year later.
They also found that COVID-19 symptoms that don’t clear up after 15 weeks are likely to last at least a year.
The research was presented at European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases and was conducted by Aurelie Fischer et al.
In the study, the team surveyed almost 300 people a year after they were diagnosed with COVID-19.
The 289 participants (50.2% women) had an average age of 40.2 years and were divided in three groups, based on the severity of their initial infection: asymptomatic, mild and moderate/severe COVID-19.
Six in ten (59.5%) participants had at least one long COVID symptom a year after their initial infection, with fatigue, shortness of breath and irritability the most common.
A third (34.3%) were experiencing fatigue a year on, 12.9% said respiratory symptoms were affecting their quality of life and more than half (54.2%) had ongoing sleep problems.
Participants who’d had moderate/severe COVID-19 were twice as likely to still have at least one symptom a year on than those whose initial infection was asymptomatic.
Having had moderate/severe COVID-19 was also linked to more sleep problems after a year than being asymptomatic.
The team showed that participants with a mild form of the acute illness were more likely than those who’d been asymptomatic to have at least one symptom at one year, and to have sleep problems, but to a lesser extent than those with a moderate or severe acute illness.
One in seven participants (14.2%) said they could not envisage coping with their symptoms long-term. The persistence of symptoms was not associated with the pandemic waves.
Data from Predi-COVID also revealed that COVID-19 symptoms that didn’t resolve after 15 weeks were likely still to be present a year after initial infection.
The analysis also showed revealed that some groups of symptoms tend to occur together, suggesting that there are multiple different types of long COVID.
This study offers a detailed description of symptoms persisting one year after COVID-19, according to the initial disease severity.
It shows that long COVID can still have a large impact on quality of life, even a year after the acute infection.
In general, the more severe the acute illness is, the more likely someone is to have ongoing symptoms; however, those with an asymptomatic or mild initial infection may also experience a deterioration in their quality of life.
If you care about COVID, please read studies about existing drugs that can kill COVID-19 virus, and these old vaccines can fight COVID-19 pandemic.
For more information about COVID, please see recent studies about the cause of severe inflammation in COVID-19, and results showing this drug duo may help cure COVID-19.
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