Up to one in six people with Covid-19 report long Covid symptoms

One in six (17%) middle-aged people who report being infected by SARS-CoV-2 also report long Covid symptoms, while this falls to one in 13 (7.8%) among younger adults who reported having Covid-19, according to a new study led by UCL and King's College London researchers. The preliminary findings, part of the UKRI-NIHR funded multi-institution Convalescence study and submitted to the preprint server medRxiv , also found that women were 50% more likely to report long Covid than men, and that the risk for long Covid symptoms increases with age, is linked to poorer pre-pandemic mental and physical health and is associated with a previous diagnosis of asthma. Non-white ethnic minority groups had lower odds of reporting long COVID (about 70% less likely). Using a stricter definition of long Covid as impacting routine daily activities, the researchers found that it affected 1.2% of 20-year-olds who had Covid-19, but 4.8% of people in middle age. The researchers analysed anonymised data from 1.2 million primary health records across the UK together with 10 population-based cohort studies with 45,096 participants. Using existing cohort studies, whose participants are surveyed regularly, allowed the research team to include cases not reported to the GP and to look at people's health before the pandemic.