A new study has found three in four people who were hospitalised with Coronavirus reported experiencing at least one Long COVID symptom, which varied depending on which variant they caught.
The study was carried out by researchers at the University of Florence and Careggi University Hospital in Italy.
Study lead Dr Michele Spinicci and other researchers carried out a retrospective observational study of 428 patients treated at Careggi University Hospital's post-COVID outpatient service between June 2020 and June 2021, when the original form of SARS-CoV-2 and the Alpha variant were circulating in the population. Of the 428 patients, 254 (59 percent) were men and 174 (41 percent) were women.
The patients had been hospitalised with COVID-19 and discharged 4-12 weeks before attending a clinical visit at the outpatient service and completing a questionnaire on persistent symptoms.
The research found 325 of the 428 patients (76 percent) reported at least one persistent symptom. The most common symptoms were shortness of breath and chronic fatigue reported by 157 patients (37 percent) and 156 patients (36 percent) respectively.
The next was sleep problems reported by 68 patients or 16 percent, visual problems reported by 55 or 13 percent and brain fog reported by 54 or 13 percent.
Analysis of the patients show those who were severely unwell, and required immunosuppressant drugs, were six times as likely to report Long COVID symptoms, while those who received high flow oxygen support were 40 percent more likely to experience ongoing problems.
Women were also almost twice as likely to report symptoms of Long COVID compared with men. But patients with type 2 diabetes appeared to have a lower risk of developing Long COVID symptoms. The authors say that further studies are needed to better understand this unexpected finding.
Researchers performed a detailed evaluation comparing the symptoms reported by patients infected between March and December 2020 (when the original SARS-COV-2 was dominant) with those reported by patients infected between January and April 2021 (when Alpha was the dominant variant) and discovered a substantial difference in the symptoms patients reported.
They found when Alpha, which was the first of the highly publicised variants, was dominant symptoms such as muscle aches and pain, insomnia, brain fog and anxiety/depression significantly increased, while loss of smell, difficulty in swallowing, and impaired hearing were less common.
“Many of the symptoms reported in this study have been measured, but this is the first time they have been linked to different COVID-19 variants”, says Dr Spinicci.
“The long duration and broad range of symptoms reminds us that the problem is not going away, and we need to do more to support and protect these patients in the long term. Future research should focus on the potential impacts of variants of concern and vaccination status on ongoing symptoms.”
The authors acknowledge the study was observational and does not prove cause and effect, and they could not confirm which variant of the virus caused the infection in different patients - which may limit the conclusions that can be drawn.
It comes as experts in New Zealand are pushing for more support for Long COVID sufferers.
Long COVID symptoms include:
Fatigue
Shortness of breath
Cough
Low mood
Headaches
Difficulty concentrating, cognitive impairment or ‘brain fog’
Chest pain (clinical assessment may be required to investigate the specific cause)
Joint pain
Muscle aches and pains
Muscle weakness (this can be a reported symptom, and may also be clinically measured)
Ongoing changes to smell or taste
Fast-beating or a ‘pounding’ heart
Sleep disturbances
The Ministry of Health warns anyone can develop Long COVID, even people who had mild infections, young adults and people with no pre-existing conditions.
