“Nearly 1 in 7 working-age US adults had experienced long COVID by late 2023, and socially disadvantaged adults were over 150% more likely to have persistent symptoms, two new studies find. [..]
[First study] An age- and sex-adjusted model of 2022 data from 154,430 participants estimated that those vaccinated against COVID-19 had a 14% lower risk of protracted symptoms than their unvaccinated peers, but a fully adjusted model found no difference in risk. In comparison, a fully adjusted model of 2023 data from 220,664 respondents found a higher risk of long COVID among the vaccinated than the unvaccinated.
Risk factors for the condition were lower household income, Hispanic ethnicity, female sex, and gay, lesbian, or bisexual status. Long COVID was tied to elevated risks of recent unemployment, financial problems, and anxiety and depression.
Roughly 14.5 million adults overall and 10.9 million adults with long COVID still had symptoms in fall 2022 and fall 2023, respectively. Among adults with current long-COVID symptoms, there was evidence of a dose-response relationship, with those reporting the most impact on daily functioning having a more than two-fold higher risk of recent depression than those reporting no impact. [..]
[Second study] A survey-based report this week in BMC Medicine by Anhui Medical University researchers in China highlights the relationship between adverse social determinants of health (SDoH) and long COVID in the United States.
The investigators parsed data on 16,446 US adults with a history of COVID-19 infection, 3,111 (18.6%) of them with long COVID, from the 2022 and 2023 National Health Interview Surveys from the National Center for Health Statistics. They measured cumulative social disadvantage using 18 SDoH indicators categorized into quartiles. The average participant age was 48.1 years. [..]
Respondents in the highest quartile of social disadvantage were 152% more likely to report long COVID than those in the lowest quartile (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.52). This link persisted across demographic subgroups, with greater effects on women and Black participants and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic and White adults. [..]
“Beyond poverty, social inequalities such as occupational exposure and racial discrimination also make certain populations more vulnerable to virus exposure,” they [the study authors] wrote. “Workers in long-term care facilities and public service sectors, including education, social care, and transportation, are at higher risk for long COVID.”
The researchers said that healthcare providers need to take a holistic approach, particularly with socially disadvantaged groups during post-COVID recovery, by incorporating systematic screening for SDoH to identify high-risk populations and offer timely interventions.
“Addressing systemic inequities through integrated public health strategies is essential to mitigate the burden of long COVID and reduce social disparities in health,” they wrote.”
Full article, MV Beusekom, CIDRAP