A trio of new observational studies from Europe describes long COVID prevalence in Luxembourg, the effect of initial infection severity on risk in Sweden, and an occupational therapy program to ease symptoms in Ireland. The research was presented at the annual congress of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) in Portugal, which ended yesterday.

Symptoms lasting 15 weeks likely to persist

Researchers from the Luxembourg Institute of Health surveyed 289 people about whether they had any of 64 common long COVID symptoms 1 year after they tested positive. Patients were also asked about their sleep quality and the effect of respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath on quality of life. Average patient age was 40.2 years, and 50.2% were women.

The researchers found that 6 in 10 patients (59.5%) had at least one COVID-19 symptom, and that symptoms that don't resolve by 15 weeks are likely to persist for at least a year. One in seven participants (14.2%) indicated that they couldn't fathom coping with their symptoms long term. The most common symptoms were fatigue, shortness of breath, and irritability.

One-third (34.3%) still had fatigue, while 12.9% said respiratory symptoms were affecting their quality of life, and 54.2% still had sleep issues. Patients who had moderate or severe infections were twice as likely as those with asymptomatic cases to report symptoms, with 63.8% versus 38.6% still having poor sleep quality.

"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," lead author Aurelie Fischer, a PhD student, said in an ESCMID news release.

The results also showed that some symptoms tend to cluster together, suggesting that there are different subtypes of long COVID. "Long Covid can still have a large impact on quality of life, even a year after the acute infection," Fischer said. "This work will help raise awareness of the needs of people with long Covid and contribute to the development of health strategies to help them."

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