TY - JOUR
AU - Hastie, Claire E.
AU - Lowe, David J.
AU - McAuley, Andrew
AU - Mills, Nicholas L.
AU - Winter, Andrew J.
AU - Black, Corri
AU - Scott, Janet T.
AU - O'Donnell, Catherine A.
AU - Blane, David N.
AU - Browne, Susan
AU - Ibbotson, Tracy R.
AU - Pell, Jill P.
PY - 2023
DA - November
TI - True prevalence of long-COVID in a nationwide, population cohort study
JO - Nature Communications
EP - 2633
VL - 14
DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43661-w
AB - Long-COVID prevalence estimates vary widely and should take account of symptoms that would have occurred anyway. Here we determine the prevalence of symptoms attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infection, taking account of background rates and confounding, in a nationwide population cohort study of 198,096 Scottish adults. 98,666 (49.8%) had symptomatic laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections and 99,430 (50.2%) were age-, sex-, and socioeconomically-matched and never-infected. While 41,775 (64.5%) reported at least one symptom 6 months following SARS-CoV-2 infection, this was also true of 34,600 (50.8%) of those never-infected. The crude prevalence of one or more symptom attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infection was 13.8% (13.2%,14.3%), 12.8% (11.9%,13.6%), and 16.3% (14.4%,18.2%) at 6, 12, and 18 months respectively. Following adjustment for potential confounders, these figures were 6.6% (6.3%, 6.9%), 6.5% (6.0%, 6.9%) and 10.4% (9.1%, 11.6%) respectively. Long-COVID is characterised by a wide range of symptoms that, apart from altered taste and smell, are non-specific. Care should be taken in attributing symptoms to previous SARS-CoV-2 infection.
PB - Springer Nature
UR - https://publichealthscotland.scot/id/161685
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
ER