Type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease (CHD) are just some of the preexisting conditions associated with a heightened risk of developing long COVID, according to a new study of more than 800,000 patients. Researchers also emphasized that being vaccinated against COVID-19 appeared to reduce the risk of long COVID.
The new study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, focused on data from 41 different peer-reviewed studies and a total of 860,783 adult patients.
“Several studies have been published investigating clinical and epidemiologic risk factors and/or predictors of post-COVID-19 condition (PCC),” wrote first author Vasiliki Tsampasian, MD, MSc, a cardiologist with the University of East Anglia in the U.K. “However, these studies often had relatively few patients. Furthermore, wide discrepancy exists among published data, yielding uncertainty on the clinical utility of their findings. Therefore, the aim of this study was to search the available literature for published studies that found clinical and epidemiologic risk factors associated with the development of PCC and to pool their results.”
Tsampasian et al. found that women, older patients, patients with a high BMI and patients who smoked cigarettes all faced an above-average risk of developing PCC. The group also investigated preexisting comorbidities among COVID-19 patients, noting that individuals with a history of type 2 diabetes, CHD, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, anxiety, depression, asthma and immunosuppression were all more likely to develop PCC.
In addition, the authors found a clear connection between hospitalization for COVID-19 and PCC.
“Our meta-analysis revealed that patients who were hospitalized or admitted to the ICU had more than double risk of developing PCC,” the authors wrote. “Severe illness has been found to be a significant risk factor for PCC in previous studies.”
COVID-19 vaccination and long COVID
Receiving a COVID-19 vaccine appeared to have “a protective role” for patients against PCC, helping them significantly reduce their risk of experiencing long-lasting symptoms.
“Importantly, emerging evidence suggests that vaccination reduces the risk of PCC and its sequelae even in individuals with other risk factors, such as older age or high BMI, expanding the benefits of vaccination beyond the morbidity and mortality benefits seen during the acute COVID-19 phase,” the authors wrote.
Read the full study here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.