Although the overall burden of long COVID in health care workers has decreased, 1% still report functional restrictions in their daily lives, according to study findings published in Infection.
Researchers conducted a prospective multicenter study in Switzerland nested in a previously conducted multicenter open cohort study to evaluate the burden and course of long COVID among health care workers over the duration of 30 months. Five surveys were conducted in March 2021, September 2021, June 2022, April 2023, and October 2023, through which participants updated their SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and infection histories, as well as answered questions regarding long COVID parameters. Cross-sectional data from the October 2023 study and longitudinal data from health care workers who completed all 5 surveys were evaluated in this study. Health care workers were stratified by variant most likely to have caused the first infection: Wild-type (January 2020-January 2021), Alpha/Delta (February 2021-December 2021), Omicron (January 2022-September 2023), and uninfected. The primary outcomes included the proportions of health care workers who reported at least 1 persisting long COVID symptom, the proportion of participants who ever experienced long COVID, and functional restrictions in daily life attributable to long COVID. Logistic regression and negative binomial models were used in statistical analyses.
A total of 1704 health care workers (median age, 47 years; women, 82.2%; White, 98.9%) were included in the cross-sectional analysis, of whom 653 (38.3%; median age, 48 years; women, 81.8%; White, 99.1%) had responded to all 5 surveys and were included in the longitudinal analysis.
Although 551 (30.7%) of health care workers who were included in the cross-sectional analysis reported at least 1 long COVID symptom, only 115 (6.7%) reported currently or previously having long COVID. Both figures were most common in individuals infected with the Wild-type (39% and 19.2%, respectively) vs all other variants.
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Our data show a steady and continuing decrease of PASC prevalence and burden in an HCW population of predominantly female, and previously healthy individuals over the course of 30 months.
Of the 115 patients who reported currently or previously having long COVID, 63 (55%) stated they were still experiencing long COVID and 17 (14.8%) stated they were still experiencing relevant or severe restrictions in everyday life activities due to long COVID, corresponding to 1% of the total population of health care workers. Among the 85 (74.0%) participants who indicated taking at least 1 measure against their symptoms, 69 (81%) reported benefit.
The longitudinal analysis comprised 653 participants, of whom 112 (17.2%) were infected with the Wild-type variant, 491 (75.2%) were infected with non-Wild-type variants, and 50 (7.7%) were considered uninfected.
The proportion of patients reporting any long COVID symptoms was consistently larger in patients infected with the Wild-type variant vs uninfected patients, with a difference of +21% (95% CI, 4%-39%) in March 2021, which decreased to +7% (95% CI, -10% to 25%) in October 2023. This effect was not exhibited by patients infected with non-Wild-type variants.
Study limitations include the underestimation of PASC prevalence and burden, reduced generalizability of results to other populations, and potential misclassification.
“Our data show a steady and continuing decrease of PASC [long COVID] prevalence and burden in an HCW population of predominantly female, and previously healthy individuals over the course of 30 months,” the researchers concluded.
This article originally appeared on Infectious Disease Advisor
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