Scientists from the University of Southern California found that 23% of people infected with COVID will become “long haulers,” and identifies predictors of who is likely to develop the sometimes-debilitating symptoms that can last for months.
The study accounts for preexisting symptoms such as fatigue and sneezing that are common to other conditions and may be mistaken for COVID symptoms.
The research is published in Scientific Reports and was conducted by Qiao Wu et al.
While SARS-CoV-2 is typically an acute illness lasting about three weeks, some people with COVID have symptoms that last months or longer.
The World Health Organization defines long COVID as symptoms that last 12 weeks or longer, a definition that the study’s authors also used.
In the study, the team found that obesity and hair loss at the time of infection are predictors of long COVID, but that other underlying conditions—such as diabetes or smoking status—have no discernable link to long-lasting symptoms.
They used an internet-based national survey—the Understanding Coronavirus in America tracking survey.
Their final sample included 308 infected, non-hospitalized individuals who were interviewed one month before, around the time of infection and 12 weeks later.
The team found about 23% of the participants reported that they had experienced new-onset symptoms during infection which lasted for more than 12 weeks, meeting the study’s definition of long COVID.
The new-onset, persistent symptoms most commonly experienced by long COVID patients were:
- Headache (22%).
- Runny or stuffy nose (19%).
- Abdominal discomfort (18%).
- Fatigue (17%).
- Diarrhea (13%).
In addition, the researchers found that people had significantly higher odds of experiencing long COVID if, at the time of infection, they:
- Were obese
- Experienced hair loss
- Experienced headache
- Experienced a sore throat
Unexpectedly, the odds of long COVID among people who experienced chest congestion were lower.
There was a lack of evidence relating the risk of long COVID to preexisting health conditions such as diabetes or asthma, or age, gender, race/ethnicity, education or current smoking status.
The team says the strong association between long COVID and obesity is consistent with previous studies.
If you care about COVID, please read studies about why people with blood type O have lower COVID-19 risk, and vitamin D could effectively determine severity of COVID-19 infection.
For more information about COVID, please see recent studies that people over 50s may develop this disease after COVID-19, and results showing vitamin D3 could help people fight against COVID-19.
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