Long-COVID fatigue can diminish quality of life more than some cancers, suggests an observational study published yesterday in BMJ Open.
University of Exeter researchers led the study of self-reported long-COVID symptoms and quality of life among 3,754 adults registered to complete questionnaires on the Living with Covid Recovery app from November 30, 2020, to March 23, 2022.
Participants were aged 18 to 65, 71% were women, 89% were White, and all still had COVID-19 symptoms at least 3 months after diagnosis. All were patients at 1 of 31 long-COVID clinics in England and Wales.
One-fifth couldn't work at all
A total of 51% of participants said they lost at least 1 day of work in the previous month, and 20% reported not being able to work at all. Average Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS) score at baseline was 21, with 53% scoring 20 or more, indicating moderately severe functional impairment.
Risk factors tied to WSAS scores of at least 20 were high levels of fatigue, depression, and brain fog, with fatigue contributing the most to the high score.
Many long-COVID patients were seriously ill, and their average fatigue scores were similar to or worse than those of people with cancer-related anemia (low counts of oxygen-carrying red blood cells) or severe kidney disease. Their health-related quality of life scores were also lower than those of people with advanced metastatic cancers, such as stage 4 lung cancer.
Effects of fatigue far-reaching
"Our results have found that long Covid can have a devastating effect on the lives of patients—with fatigue having the biggest impact on everything from social activities to work, chores, and maintaining close relationships," co-lead author Henry Goodfellow, PhD, of University College London (UCL), said in a UCL news release.
He added that the study shows that fatigue should be a focus of clinical care and the design of rehabilitation services. "Post-Covid assessment services should consider focusing on assessing and treating fatigue to maximise the recovery and return to work for sufferers of long Covid," he said.
Senior author William Henley, PhD, of the University of Exeter, called long COVID an invisible condition. "Shockingly, our research has revealed that long Covid can leave people with worse fatigue and quality of life than some cancers, yet the support and understanding is not at the same level," he said in the release.
"We urgently need more research to enable the development of evidence-based services to support people trying to manage this debilitating new condition.
