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 persistResearchers 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.