Factors associated with resolution of long-COVID symptoms

Editor's Note

This French study finds that persistent symptoms were still present in 10.1% of COVID-19 infected individuals at 1 year.

Of 53,047 study participants analyzed, 3,972 (2,531 women) with a mean age of 50.9 years had been infected with COVID-19. Of these, 2,647 reported at least one symptom during the acute phase, and 861 reported at least one persistent symptom lasting 2 or more months after the acute phase. After 1 year of follow-up, those with complete symptom resolution was 89.9%, leaving approximately 10% with symptoms still present.

Factors associated with a slower resolution of all symptoms were:

• older age (Hazard Ratio [HR] 0.78)
• female gender (HR 0.64)
• history of cancer (HR 0.61)
• history of tobacco consumption (HR 0.80)
• higher BMI (HR 0.75)
• higher number of symptoms during the acute phase (HR 0.43).

The researchers concluded that although most COVID-19 symptoms disappear within a year, in a pandemic context with a high level of cumulative incidence, the number of people with persistent symptoms remains a public health concern.