United States: A new report shows that about 7% of U.S. adults, which is nearly about eighteen million people, had long covid as of early last year.
And this particular study has been published in June in the Jama Data Brief, used data from the 2023 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS).
This is the survey which has been conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and which also included about 17,000 adults aged 18 and older. Out of these, 8,275 adults had covid-19, and around 1,200 of them reported having long covid symptoms.
Survey Findings on Vaccination and Long Covid Symptoms
The survey conducted by MEPS also asked the patients about their vaccination and the booster shot history, just the 6 percent of them are vaccinated and boosted respondents and reported long covid symptoms which includes coughing, fever and some symptoms like sore throat etc vs. the 8 percent of those people who are not vaccinated.
The findings suggest “ supporter shots may enhance protection against long covid, conceivably because supporter shots reduce the threat of severe COVID– 19, ” the experimenters wrote.
As reported by The Washington Post, Long covid can be explained as the symptoms which are lasting three months or longer after an original covid- 19 infection as shown by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Long covid occurs more frequently in those who had severe covid-19, the CDC says.
Differences in Long Covid Symptoms Between Genders and Ethnicities
Researchers in a study also found out that significant differences are reported long covid symptoms between men and women, with women more likely to report symptoms in every age group — 9 percent of women vs. 5 percent of men.
Understanding Long Covid
Respondents with underlying health conditions such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis and asthma were also more likely to report having long covid, as were White and Hispanic survey respondents.
Long Covid Symptoms and Challenges
Long covid can conclude a very wide range of symptoms — including fatigue, brain fog, post-exertional malaise, coughing, fever and difficulty breathing. The CDC also notes that there isn’t a laboratory test that