New survey data from the groundbreaking Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) show that 34% of postmenopausal women infected with COVID-19 had symptoms for at least eight weeks, while a separate two-year telemedicine study shows that 84% and 61% of all infected patients still had symptoms one and two years later, respectively.
Fatigue, malaise, brain fog common
For the GHI studyFrom August to December 2021, a research team led by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center surveyed 37,280 women aged 50 to 79 at 40 U.S. clinical centers about long COVID symptoms and their duration. They used machine learning and logistic regression models to measure the strength of the association of symptoms with long COVID. The results were published today in the Annals of Epidemiology.
“Long-term health, psychosocial and demographic data are needed to fully understand the risk factors for long Covid in older people and to develop and implement effective prevention,” the study authors write.
Of the 37,280 survey respondents, 3.3% reported testing positive for COVID-19 (mean age 84 years), and 34% reported continuing neurological, cardiopulmonary, and musculoskeletal symptoms, as well as fatigue and malaise. Almost all respondents (91%) were white, and no differences were observed by race and long-COVID status.
As new variants continue to emerge and infect people, older adults remain particularly vulnerable to long-term health damage from this pathogen.
Common symptoms lasting longer than 8 weeks were fatigue (51.8%), general malaise (34.6%), memory problems (34.4%), and brain fog (31.8%). Over 20% of Long COVID patients reported memory problems and fatigue lasting longer than 6 months.
Risk factors for Long COVID included weight loss of 10 pounds or more in the past 2 years, sleep problems, limited physical and mobility, previous heart valve surgery, and rheumatoid arthritis. Risk factors for physical function in Long COVID included limited ability to bend, kneel, stoop, or grocery shop, and use of a wheelchair, walker, or crutches on flat surfaces. Lower risk for Long COVID was associated with older age and taking calcium supplements.
“As new variants continue to emerge and infect people, older adults remain highly vulnerable to long-term health effects from this pathogen,” the researchers concluded. “Further multidisciplinary research is needed to understand and prevent Long COVID to reduce morbidity and mortality and maintain the quality of life of older adults.”
Long COVID decreased from 84% to 61% from year 1 to year 2
Secondly studypublished in PLOS OneA team led by researchers at the University of Milan in Italy conducted two years of semi-structured interviews with 165 COVID-19 patients who had been monitored by a telemedicine surgery center from February to May 2020. The average age of the patients was 53 years, 53% were women, 28% had hypertension, 9.1% had cardiovascular disease, and 7.9% had diabetes.
The potential benefits of telemedicine platforms are evident in pandemic situations and other situations where isolation is essential.
Of the 165 patients, 84% reported persistent symptoms one year after infection, while 61% still had them after 2 years. About half (49%) of the participants who had long-COVID symptoms after 2 years had reported them after one year, received the COVID-19 vaccine, and had not become reinfected in the meantime. Having long-COVID one year after infection and becoming reinfected were significant risk factors for persistent symptoms after 2 years. Vaccination did not prove to be a protective factor, which the researchers attributed to the small number of unvaccinated participants.
“The potential value of telemedicine platforms is evident in pandemic situations and other situations where isolation is essential,” the authors wrote. “The sample size of our study is small, so further research on a larger cohort with longer follow-up is needed. While there are some barriers to telemedicine, such as accessibility, maintenance costs, and inadequate regulatory requirements, these barriers are surmountable as it is useful in monitoring many clinical conditions.”
