October 6, 2023 – Long COVID just isn't the one respiratory illness whose symptoms can disrupt day by day life for weeks. A latest study concludes that even persistent symptoms of a chilly or flu can have a long-term negative impact on people's lives.
People with long COVID were more likely than individuals with long cold to have taste and smell problems, hair loss, unusual sweating, a better heart rate and memory problems.
Common symptoms in individuals with long-term colds included cough, stomach pain and diarrhea.
The study was published Friday in a sister publication The lancet called eClinical Medicine.
The results are based on data collected from people living within the UK in January and February 2021. The people within the study weren't vaccinated against COVID-19.
This group was chosen for the study because they answered all questions on long-term symptoms. At this point, there have been enough people infected with COVID to constitute a big enough group to check. However, because vaccinations weren't widely available, the information was less more likely to be influenced by vaccination status.
The researchers compared data from greater than 1,700 people from two groups:
- People who've previously had COVID-19 and
- People who had a non-COVID respiratory illness, which included flu, bronchitis, pneumonia and the common cold.
A comparison group of greater than 8,000 individuals who didn't suffer from COVID or a respiratory disease was also analyzed.
“Our results not only shed light on the impact of Long Covid on people’s lives, but also on respiratory infections. “Lack of awareness – or even lack of a common term – prevents both the reporting and diagnosis of these diseases,” said researcher Giulia Vivaldi, a doctoral candidate in epidemiology at Queen Mary University of London, in a press release opinion. “As research into Long Covid continues, we must take the opportunity to study and consider the lasting effects of other acute respiratory infections.”
In August the CDC It is estimated that one in 10 individuals who get COVID will develop long COVID, which on this estimate was defined as symptoms that last no less than three months.
For this latest study comparing long COVID to long colds, symptoms were defined as lasting no less than 4 weeks.