Quantifying the adverse effects of long COVID on individuals’ health after infection: A Propensity Score Matching design study

Abstract

Abstract This study assessed the prevalence and influencing factors of long COVID, and measured the difference in health status between long COVID and non-long COVID cases. A total of 3165 COVID-19 patients (53.11% female) completed the questionnaire and provided data on socio-demographic characteristics, lifestyles and health status. The total score of lifestyle assignment ranged from 5 to 21 points. Health status was assessed through self-reported, and the score ranged from 0 to 100 points. The criteria of “persistent symptoms or health problems after 4 weeks (28 days) of COVID-19 infection” issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was used to assess whether the individuals had long COVID. The answers revealed that 9.73% of patients were identified long COVID. The health status scores of the long COVID cases 74.79 (95% CI: 72.75 ~ 76.82) was lower than that of the non-long COVID cases 81.06 (95% CI: 80.50 ~ 81.61). Never focused on mental decompression was a common risk factor for the health status of long and non-long COVID cases (β=-25.40, 95% CI: -38.82~-11.98; β=-4.86, 95% CI: -7.51~-2.21). The total lifestyle scores were identified as a mediating factor long COVID infection on individuals’ health, with a mediating effect of 0.2249 (95%CI: 0.0774 ~ 0.4096). In conclusion, the proportion of long COVID cases was low, but they were significantly worse off in health. This study proved that healthy lifestyles including mental decompression should be considered as the core strategy of primary prevention when the epidemic of COVID-19 is still at a low level.