In last week’s post, we described long-COVID and the various symptoms that arises. However, there is still an important question that needs to be answered: who has a higher risk of getting long-COVID? The response to this question is not fully available, but many researchers have explored how sex, age, ethnicity, and the severity of COVID-19 symptoms impact the risk of acquiring long-COVID. For this text, we are focusing on three studies. The first, Carvalho-Schneider et al. [1] looked into 150 patients during 60 days after COVID-19 was confirmed. The second, Taquet et al. [2], did a 6-month retrospective cohort study of 273,618 survivors of COVID-19 in the UK. The third, Sykes et al. [3] followed-up with 134 patients with pneumonia due to COVID-19 113 days post-discharge. Below is the date from these three studies, summarized by the different risk factors [1-3]:
Age
Carvalho-Schneider et al. identified that between the ages of 40 to 59 years, there is an increased risk for acute long-COVID [1]. Moreover, according to the findings from Taquet et al. [2] only 46.42% of the ages 10-21 years have an increased risk, compared to 61.05% in the ages over 65. It is important to note that younger patients were significantly more likely to have headaches, abdominal symptoms, and anxiety/depression, whereas older patients were more likely to have breathing difficulties, cognitive symptoms, pain, and fatigue.
Sex
Females were significantly more likely to have headaches, abdominal symptoms, and anxiety/depression, whereas males were significantly more likely to have breathing difficulties and cognitive symptoms [2].
Ethnicity
There are only minor differences in long-COVID across different ethnicities, however they are not significant enough to have a correlation with developing this condition [3].
Severity of COVID-19 symptoms
There is a correlation with the severity of one’s COVID-19 symptoms, and the risk of getting long-COVID. 63.64% of those hospitalized and 73.22% of those admitted to the intensive treatment unit (ITU) develop this condition [2].
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Written by: Phaedra
Edited by: María and Natasha
BioDecoded is a volunteer group committed to sharing accurate scientific information. For more information about vaccines and their safety profile, please see previous posts or consult with your personal physician. If you have any questions about this topic, please comment or send them to our email.
References:
Carvalho-Schneider, C. et al. (2021) “Follow-up of adults with noncritical COVID-19 two months after symptom onset”, Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 27(2), pp. 258-263. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33031948/
Taquet, M. et al. (2021) “Incidence, co-occurrence, and evolution of long-COVID features: A 6-month retrospective cohort study of 273,618 survivors of COVID-19”, PLOS Medicine, 18(9), p. e1003773. Available at: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003773
Sykes, D. et al. (2021) “Post-COVID-19 Symptom Burden: What is Long-COVID and How Should We Manage It?”, Lung, 199(2), pp. 113-119. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33569660/
A, Dennis. et al. (2021) “Multiorgan impairment in low-risk individuals with post-COVID-19 syndrome: a prospective, community-based study”, BMJ open, 11(3), p. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33785495/
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