The study, published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, found that patients who had been bedridden for at least seven days during the SARS-CoV-2 infection had the highest prevalence of severe physical symptom burden, over double that of those not diagnosed with Covid-19.They also had the most persistent symptoms for up to two years after diagnosis.The prevalence of chronic symptoms such as shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, headaches, and low energy/ fatigue, was 37 per cent higher in those who had had a Covid-19 diagnosis than in those who had not.However, no elevated prevalence of long Covid was found in people who had never been bedridden with the SARS-CoV-2 infection.“Long Covid has grown into a major public health problem since a large proportion of the global population has been infected, says Emily Joyce, doctoral student at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.“Our results show the long-term health consequences of the pandemic and highlight the importance of monitoring physical symptoms for up to two years after diagnosis, especially in people who experienced severe Covid-19, Joyce added.In the study, researchers examined the prevalence of persistent physical symptoms in people with different degrees of Covid severity and compared them with people who had not had a confirmed Covid-19 diagnosis.The study comprised 64,880 adults from Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland with self-reported physical symptoms between April 2020 and August 2022.Over 22,000 of the participants were diagnosed with Covid-19 during the period, almost 10 per cent of whom were bedridden for at least seven days.“We’ll continue to assess the long-term health impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in this project, said Qing Shen, affiliated researcher at the Institute of Environmental Medicine and the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska.--IANSrvt/uk(Disclaimer: This post has been auto published from IANS news agency without any modification to the text and has not been reviewed by editor)
