News: CDC releases study on long COVID based on two million patient cases

A study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open looked at two million patients to compare the prevalence of new diagnoses and symptoms for those who tested positive for COVID-19 versus negative. The study found that those who tested positive for COVID-19 were more likely to be diagnosed with shortness of breath, nonspecific heart rate abnormalities, Type 2 diabetes, and fatigue than those who did not contract the virus, even months after their initial positive test results.

ICD-10-CM codes were used to capture new symptoms and conditions recorded between 31 and 150 days after a COVID-19 test that were absent prior to infection. Shortness of breath was more common to appear in the months after COVID-19 for patients older than 20, regardless of hospitalization status. New fatigue and Type 2 diabetes diagnoses were higher among hospitalized COVID-19 patients older than 20, as well as heart rate abnormalities, sleep disorders, and cognitive dysfunction.

Hospitalized patients younger than 20 were most likely to experience shortness of breath as a lingering symptom. Type 2 diabetes was only slightly more prevalent in those under the age of 20 who had tested positive for COVID-19 than those who were negative.

“Although new symptoms and conditions occurred infrequently, applying the proportions of these rare events to the millions of persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 means that a substantial number might experience new symptoms and conditions after their acute illness,” the study states.

Nearly six million people have died worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic, with nearly one million dead in the United States.

Editor’s note: The JAMA Network Open published study can be found here. Additional ACDIS coverage of COVID-19 can be found here.