Impact of long Covid on quality of life can be worse than some cancers
Fatigue is significantly impacting those living with long Covid and can affect their quality of life more than some cancers, a new study involving doctors and researchers from Barts Health, UCL and the University of Exeter has found.
This is the first study to report on the impact of the condition on day-to-day functioning and the health-related quality of life in patients who have been referred to specialist long Covid clinics across England.
The research, published in BMJ Open and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), looks at 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.
Participants were asked to complete questionnaires on the app about how long Covid was affecting them, thinking about the impact of it on their day-to-day activities, levels of fatigue, depression, anxiety, breathlessness, brain fog, and their overall quality of life. They were diagnosed with long Covid after being referred to a clinic, having had symptoms for at least 12 weeks.
The researchers found that many people with long Covid were seriously ill and on average had fatigue scores worse or similar to people with cancer-related anaemia or severe kidney disease. Their health-related quality of life scores were also lower than those of people with advanced cancers that had spread, like stage IV lung cancer.
Overall, the team found that the impact of long Covid on the daily activities of those with the condition was worse than that of people who had a stroke and was comparable to that of people with Parkinson’s Disease.
Dr Paul Pfeffer, a consultant in respiratory medicine at Barts Health NHS Trust who was involved in the study said:
“This research, which was a fantastic collaboration between clinical teams, patients, academics and industry partners, has shed much-needed new light on the condition. Our hope now is that, with this deeper understanding of long Covid, we can improve the care the thousands of people with the condition receive.”
Not only does long Covid negatively impact the lives of patients on an individual level, the researchers also believe that it could have a significant economic and social impact on the country.
Over 90% of people with long Covid using the app were of working age (18-65) and 51% said they had been unable to work for at least one day in the previous month, with 20% unable to work at all.
Of those involved, 71% were female. With working-age women making up a majority of our health and social care workforce, the impact of long Covid on this groups’ ability to function may add additional pressures to already stretched services.
According to the Office for National Statistics, around 1.4 million people in the UK had symptoms of long Covid as of July 2022. Alongside fatigue, patients typically experience breathlessness, anxiety, depression and brain fog.
It’s important to note that, as the patients involved in the study were those under treatment, it represents only a snap-shot of the national burden of long Covid.