Long COVID symptoms can last three months, study including Yale New Haven finds. ‘It’s validating for patients.’ – Hartford Courant

A new study involving Yale New Haven Health and other medical centers has found the symptoms of long COVID can last as long as three months after a person has tested positive for COVID-19.

The study is part of the ongoing project INSPIRE — Innovative Support for Patients with SARS-CoV-2 Infections Registry. Researchers examined 1,000 people who had acute COVID symptoms and tested both positive and negative for the virus.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines long COVID as lasting for four weeks, half of the study participants who tested positive and a quarter of those who tested negative had symptoms after three months, showing that some symptoms are shared by the general public, according to a Yale University statement.

“These data are important for driving research and policy, but also for bringing light to people’s experiences,” said Dr. Erica Spatz, associate professor of cardiology and of epidemiology at the Yale School of Medicine, and a first author of the study, in the statement.

“It’s validating for patients who are experiencing Long COVID, and a message to clinicians that this is common and to be prepared to take care of people with this condition,” she said.

The study adds to knowledge about the little-understood phenomenon of long COVID, whose prevalence ranges from 10% to 65% in various studies, according to the Yale release. Research varies in who is studied, length of time before following up and which symptoms are studied.

Long COVID can bring a wide variety of symptoms, affecting cognition, cardiovascular health, lung function, muscle and bone health and mental health.

“Through my own personal experience taking care of patients with Long COVID, as well as what is described in the literature, we know that the symptoms span every organ system,” Spatz said. “And so we need to be really comprehensive in evaluating people’s symptoms to allow us to understand the multitude of different sequelae that could occur.”

At three months, almost half of those who tested positive had at least one symptom, either a persistent or new one, while a quarter of those who tested negative did, with fatigue being similar. One in six in both groups reported extreme fatigue.

Fatigue might have included that caused by physical or mental exertion, poor sleep quality and muscle aches, the release said.

“This is a clue that there are a lot of other people struggling,” Spatz said. “Chronic fatigue is common after other infectious diseases, too. We’re also all living through this pandemic. There are many different stressors that may be resulting in these systemic symptoms.”

Yale New Haven is one of eight health care systems participating in INSPIRE. The study was published in Clinical Infectious Diseases on Dec. 27 and is part of the INSPIRE registry.

“What’s novel about our study is that we follow people from the time that they get tested.” Spatz said in the statement. “So we have a control cohort and can compare the experiences of people with and without COVID-19 from a common starting point.”

Participants took an initial survey and then one every three months for 18 months.

“Beyond the unique focus on Long COVID, the INSPIRE registry reflects an entirely new way of doing research,” said Dr. Arjun Venkatesh, incoming chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine, a senior author.

“While the COVID-19 pandemic upended traditional research, INSPIRE reflects Yale’s innovative approach to research on which the majority of participants have been enrolled virtually and most have shared data through an entirely digital mobile platform.”

INSPIRE has enrolled 6,000 participants and long-term health outcomes will continue to be studied, based on different factors, such as variants and vaccination status, whether essential workers were affected differently and others.

“These are really important data that may inform policy, including absenteeism and family medical leave and disability, as well as research into mechanisms and treatment,” said Spatz.

Ed Stannard can be reached at [email protected].