Long Covid most prevalent among those bedridden for at least 7 days while infected: Study
New Delhi, Oct 27 (PTI) People bedridden for at least seven days during COVID-19 infection showed severe physical symptoms of the disease, persisting for up to two years after diagnosis, new research in The Lancet Regional Health-Europe journal has found.
These people showed 37 per cent higher chronic symptoms associated with long Covid such as shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, headaches and fatigue than those not diagnosed with the disease, a team including researchers from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, found.
The increase in prevalence of symptoms was noted regardless of gender, age groups, existence of depressive, anxiety or COVID-19 related distress symptoms, or pre-existing comorbidity. The rise was higher among individuals without depressive or anxiety symptoms, the researchers said.
A higher prevalence was also observed among individuals hospitalised for COVID-19 from 2 months to 22 months following diagnosis, they said.
The study comprised 64,880 adults from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland with self-reported physical symptoms between April, 2020 and August, 2022. Of these, over 22,000 (34.5 per cent) were diagnosed with COVID-19 during the period, with nearly 10 per cent of them being bedridden for at least seven days.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines long Covid as a condition whereby symptoms continue to prevail or develop 3 months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection, sometimes lasting for at least 2 months with no other explanation.
