Long COVID: 28% of healthcare workers experience symptoms after six months, study finds
When it comes to suffering with symptoms of post-infection COVID-19—often called “long COVID”—healthcare personnel experience the illness for three to six months after recovery, with increased risk associated with age and gender, a new study shows.
The research, based on surveys conducted between August 2022 and May 2024, examined COVID outcomes across a variety of healthcare-related jobs in patient care roles, from physicians and nurses to dietitians and more—anyone at increased risk of being exposed to the virus in a hospital setting.
According to the findings published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, symptoms of long COVID—associated with malaise, fatigue, brain fog, and a general sense of being unwell—lingered in 11.3% of healthcare workers post-infection at both three and six months, with older adults and women the most likely to be impacted. [1]
Those with two underlying health conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, and more, were also found to be at increased risk of struggling with the illness at 3 and 6 month intervals after initially contracting and supposedly recovering from the disease.
In all cases, the recency of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine or booster had no impact on the results, the research team from the University of Iowa Health Care concluded.
“Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not observe an association between recent vaccination and the reporting of persistent Long COVID symptoms. These unexpected findings may be influenced by selection or misclassification bias as symptoms were self-reported without clinical benchmarks for moderate or severe classifications,” the study authors led by Eric Kontowicz, PhD, wrote. “Furthermore, the extended follow-up period may have contributed to reporting differences, as individuals who were recently vaccinated might have been more vigilant or concerned about their symptoms compared to those not recently vaccinated.”
Kontowicz et al. added that their study was not controlled to measure vaccine efficacy specifically, noting that a “cohort study design would be more suitable for determining a causal association between vaccination and persistent Long COVID symptoms.”
“[D]espite our findings, previous studies and meta-analyses have noted that vaccination may reduce the risk of Long COVID,” the authors added.
Difficult to nail down
Across all healthcare jobs, moderate to severe long COVID symptoms were reported by 20% of healthcare workers three months after infection, with the number rising to 27.6% at six months. Oddly, the 11.3% mentioned above represents those who experienced severe to moderate long COVID symptoms across both three and six months exclusively, implying that some experience lingering issues later than others, with recovery times being hard to measure.
Part of the issue is that the definition of long COVID is somewhat ambiguous and amorphous, given its similarity to any sense of unwellness, linked to a variety of other illnesses or environmental factors.
Not all roles were equally impacted either. According to the findings, licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and therapists were less likely to report experiencing long COVID when compared to other clinical and non-clinical roles, despite their likelihood of high exposure to infected patients.
In any case, having COVID multiple times also increased the overall risk of experiencing lingering signs,
The researchers noted that their study method, a self-reported survey, has inherent limitations that could skew results. The limited sample size also impacts the statistics, as only 1,600 healthcare workers participated in the surveys three and six months after COVID infection.
The full study is available at the link below.
Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.