As experts work to understand the depth and duration of “Long COVID,” a recent study by a team of researchers at St. Joseph’s Health in Paterson added an element to the conversation: Even those with mild or moderate cases can be impacted.
The study of 173 individuals who participated in this study, 91 of whom had been hospitalized, found that 23% of patients still experience persistent symptoms two years after infection with COVID-19, researcher Christopher Millet said.
“Our study is the first to show that even patients with only mild COVID-19 infections can still have persistent symptoms after two years,” he said. “The only other two-year study to date included patients who were hospitalized with moderate to severe COVID infections. Our study included both hospitalized and individuals with mild COVID-19 infections.”
Symptoms of Long COVID include shortness of breath, fatigue, anxiety, difficulty focusing/brain fog and memory loss.
The study found:
- At 12 months, 50.8% of the patients experienced at least one persistent symptom;
- At 24 months, 23.1% of the patients were still experiencing at least one persistent symptom.
The study also found that women suffered more persistent long-term symptoms compared to men.
Of the 173 individuals who participated in this study, the most common ethnicity was Hispanic.
The study was published in the June 2022 edition of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, a top infectious disease journal. Read the full study here.
