COVID-19 Pandemic
The prospective associations of Long Covid with incident cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic diseases: Results from a population-based cohort study in Michigan Luis Zavala-Arciniega* Luis Zavala-Arciniega Lynda Lisabeth Robert C Orellana Nancy L Fleischer
Aim: To evaluate the prospective association of Long COVID (LC) with the incidence of cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic outcomes among adults.
Methods: We used data from the Michigan COVID-19 Recovery Surveillance Study, a population-based longitudinal study of adults with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection from March 2020 through May 2022 in Michigan. We included adults who responded to the baseline survey (median 5.3 months post-onset) and the first follow-up survey (median 21.9 months post-onset) and were free of the outcome at baseline. We categorized LC into three categories (never LC, recovered from LC, and current LC). We evaluated four self-reported incident outcomes: 1) hypertension (n=2,693), 2) heart rate or heart rhythm issues (n=3,426), 3) diabetes mellitus (n=3,374), and 4) asthma (n=3,201). We conducted modified Poisson regression to examine each prospective exposure-outcome association separately, controlling for baseline covariates age, sex, race and ethnicity, income, current smoking, body mass index, preexisting conditions, survey mode (telephone, online), and pandemic phase.
Results: In adjusted models, the incidence of hypertension, heart rate or heart rhythm issues, and asthma were all higher among adults who reported current LC compared to those who never reported LC (hypertension: RR=1.71 CI 95% 1.21, 2.43; heart rate and heart rhythm: RR=1.98 CI 95% 1.17-3.34; asthma: RR=3.13 CI 95% 1.92-5.07). However, current LC was not associated with a higher incidence of diabetes (RR=1.49, CI 95% 0.83-2.70). Interestingly, compared to never reporting LC, recovering from LC was not associated with any of the outcome measures.
Conclusion: These results suggest that experiencing persistent LC increases the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases among adults. Our findings show the need to implement health policies to prevent onset of LC and improve health care for people experiencing LC.
