“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.” However, the impact of the condition on patients’ day-to-day lives isn’t fully understood. Overall, the team found that the impact of long Covid on the daily activities of patients was worse than that of stroke patients and was comparable to that of patients with Parkinson’s disease.ĭr Henry Goodfellow, who co-led the study alongside the late Professor Elizabeth Murray (both UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health), said: “Up to around 17% of people who get Covid go on to develop long Covid*. Their health-related quality of life scores were also lower than those of people with advanced metastatic cancers, like stage IV lung cancer. The researchers found that many long Covid patients were seriously ill and on average had fatigue scores worse or similar to people with cancer-related anaemia or severe kidney disease.
Patients were asked to complete questionnaires on the app about how long Covid was affecting them – considering the impact of long Covid on their day-to-day activities, levels of fatigue, depression, anxiety, breathlessness, brain fog, and their quality of life. The research, published in BMJ Open and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), examines the impact of long Covid on the lives of over 3,750 patients who were referred to a long Covid clinic and used a digital app as part of their NHS treatment for the condition.
Fatigue is the symptom that most significantly impacts the daily lives of long Covid patients, and can affect quality of life more than some cancers, finds a new study led by researchers at UCL and the University of Exeter.
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