Long COVID is dealing a serious blow to the well-being of millions around the world, according to a unique Israeli study.
A research team led by Bar Ilan University, along with affiliated hospitals in northern Israel, found that just a single long-lasting COVID symptom can impact people’s well-being by more than 10 percent.
While long COVID – persistent symptoms following infection with the COVID-19 virus – is anecdotally common, there is little research examining the extent to which it presents a challenge to well-being as opposed to a tolerable discomfort.
The new study used an established subjective well-being questionnaire developed by the World Health Organization. It found that with each symptom people suffered from, the reported well-being continued to decrease.
Those who experienced three distinct symptoms — which are common in long COVID patients — reported well-being that was 30% lower than people of a similar age and social demographic who do not have long COVID.
“Imagining losing a third of your well-being due to prolonged COVID symptoms suggests that they are having a very real, lasting and profound impact on the well-being of many people around the world,” said lead author Prof Michael Gem The Times of Israel.
Illustrative Image: Family members visit a family member at the Ziv Medical Center’s coronavirus ward in the northern city of Safed on February 15, 2022. (David Cohen/Flash90)
“The big takeaway message is that the symptoms people experience are not just things they report without suffering much – as some have suggested – but they also have profound effects on life and well-being be able.”
The authors state in their article that “to our knowledge, this is the first study to unravel the impact of the most commonly reported post-COVID-19 symptoms on subjective well-being.”
On the plus side, the study points out that symptoms that are more physical in nature don’t have the same long-lasting effect on well-being. After the patients were 12 months post-infection, the researchers no longer found significant impairments in well-being from physical symptoms such as muscle weakness and muscle pain.
The study, which is still being peer-reviewed but has already been published online, analyzed the well-being of 2,295 people, 576 of whom were infected with the coronavirus.
Looking at a period of 3 to 18 months after infection, the researchers found that sleep disturbances appeared to reduce subjective well-being by about 11.5 percentage points, confusion and poor concentration by 10.7 percentage points, and fatigue by 7.7 percentage points.
Epidemiologist Michael Gem. (Courtesy of Michael Gem)
Gem said that while it’s difficult to quantify the loss of well-being, the statistics strongly suggest it’s being seriously harmed and suggest the challenge posed by long-COVID to public health officials around the world is multifaceted .
The impact is likely to range from treating physical symptoms to increasing pressure on mental health services in the years to come, he said.
“The idea behind this paper is that there is growing evidence that a high proportion of people report symptoms after initial infection,” said Juwel.
“Criticism of this research on the incidence of long COVID found that it reported symptoms but didn’t examine how it actually affects people’s lives, so we set out to answer that question,” he added .
“Long COVID will be a public health burden for months and years to come, so it’s important to understand how it’s affecting people.”
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