Covid-19: One in eight adults develops long covid symptoms, study suggests
One in eight Covid-19 patients (12.7%) is likely to experience long term symptoms, a study from the Netherlands has reported.
Using digital questionnaires, researchers collected data on the frequency of 23 symptoms commonly associated with Covid in an uninfected population and in people who had had a Covid diagnosis.
The findings, published in the Lancet, found that 21.4% of adults who had had Covid experienced at least one new or severely increased symptom three to five months after infection when compared with before. This compared with only 8.7% of uninfected people followed over the same period.
The core Long Covid symptoms highlighted by the researchers include chest pain, difficulties breathing, pain when breathing, painful muscles, loss of taste and smell, tingling extremities, lump in throat, feeling hot and cold, heavy arms or legs, and general tiredness.
Source: BMJ, 4 August 2022