Long COVID Disproportionately Reported by Disadvantaged Individuals: A National Survey of U.S. Working-Age Adults.

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 disproportionately affects racial/ethnic minorities and economically disadvantaged persons, which may also apply to sequelae from acute infection. Little is known about those who live with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC), including long COVID, especially those without a formal diagnosis.

OBJECTIVE

To examine self-reported long COVID symptoms and its associations with individual and state characteristics from a national survey sample of working-age adults.

DESIGN

Repeated cross-sectional survey analysis.

PARTICIPANTS

Eighteen- to 64-year-old adults who reported ever having had COVID-19 (n = 409,087).

MAIN MEASURES: We examined long COVID responses from the online Household Pulse Survey (9/22/2022-10/30/2023), administered by the Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics. Long COVID was defined as having "symptoms lasting 3 months or longer that you did not have prior to having coronavirus" (e.g., fatigue, difficulty thinking, shortness of breath) or not. Logistic regression models adjusted for survey week, respondent characteristics (e.g., demographics, acute COVID-19 severity), and state characteristics (e.g., rurality, Health Professional Shortage Areas). We additionally examined concurrent depression and anxiety symptoms.

KEY

RESULTS

The HPS response rate was 6.10% during the study timeframe.14 Among those who ever had COVID-19, 27.5% reported long COVID symptoms. Among those with long COVID symptoms, 22.6% reported having severe activity limitations. In fully adjusted models, long COVID symptoms were most commonly reported by Hispanic respondents (ΔPH = 2.3, SE = 0.7), among all racial-ethnic groups. Low socioeconomic status was consistently associated with long COVID symptoms: Income (ΔP<25k vs >=200k+ = 11.9, SE = 0.9); Medicaid-insurance (ΔPMedicaid v Employer-sponsored = 02.9, SE = 0.5); Uninsurance (ΔPUninsured v Employer-sponsored = 1.8, SE = 0.4). Long COVID symptoms were associated with living in more rural states (ΔP = 0.08, SE = 0.02). Long COVID symptoms were additionally associated with concurrent anxiety (ΔPAnx v Not = 8.0, SE = 0.4) and depressive symptoms (ΔPDep v Not = 6.7, SE = 0.6).

CONCLUSIONS

Long COVID symptoms and disability were disproportionately reported among survey respondents who were Hispanic and who were economically-disadvantaged. Rural communities were more so impacted.