Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Characterization of Individuals with Long COVID Using Electronic Health Records in Over 1.5 Million COVID Cases in England
Author(s)
Wang HI1, Doran T1, Crooks M2, Khunti K3, Heightman M4, gonzalez-Izquierdo A5, Arfeen M5, Banerjee A5, van der Feltz - Cornelis C1
1University of York, York, YOR, UK, 2Hull York Medical School, York, North Yorkshire, UK, 3University of Leicester, Leicester, Leicester, UK, 4University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, London, UK, 5University College London, London, London, UK
Presentation Documents
OBJECTIVES: Long-COVID has a significant and long-lasting impact on individuals' health and well-being. This study uses electronic health records in England to describe the prevalence of long-COVID symptoms among individuals seeking medical attention and explores the risk factors for having long-COVID.
METHODS: This is a population-based longitudinal cohort study using linked primary care data derived from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) for 1,554,040 individuals with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Descriptive statistics were used to explore the prevalence of long-COVID diagnosis and symptoms after 12-weeks from index date and Cox regression models for risk factors for having long-COVID. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to test the impact of right-censoring data. This study is funded by NIHR (COV-LT2-0043) as part of the Symptoms, Trajectory, Inequalities and Management: Understanding Long-COVID to Address and Transform Existing Integrated Care Pathways (STIMULATE-ICP) study.
RESULTS: Over average 400 days follow-up, 7.4% of those requiring medical attention following acute COVID-19 had at least one long-COVID symptom. However, only 0.5% had long-COVID diagnostic codes recorded in the electronic medical record. The most frequently recorded long-COVID symptoms were cough (17.7%), back pain (15.2%), stomach ache (11.2%), headache (11.1%), and sore throat (10.0%). Risk factors associated with long-COVID were: female sex (HR: 1.171, 95% CI: 1.156 to 1.186), non-white ethnicity (HR: 1.145, 95% CI: 1.130 to 1.161), obesity (HR: 1.100, 95% CI: 1.085 to 1.116), and pre-existing medical conditions such as anxiety, depression, type II diabetes, and somatic symptom disorders.
CONCLUSIONS: Our study is the first to investigate prevalence of, and risk factors for, clinically confirmed long-COVID symptoms in the general population using electronic health records. These findings could help clinicians identify higher risk individuals for timely intervention and allow decision-makers to more efficiently allocate resources for managing long-COVID.
Conference/Value in Health Info
Value in Health, Volume 26, Issue 11, S2 (December 2023)
Code
EPH11
Topic
Clinical Outcomes, Study Approaches
Topic Subcategory
Electronic Medical & Health Records, Relating Intermediate to Long-term Outcomes
Disease
Cardiovascular Disorders (including MI, Stroke, Circulatory), Infectious Disease (non-vaccine), Mental Health (including addition), Respiratory-Related Disorders (Allergy, Asthma, Smoking, Other Respiratory)