LONDON: Women in their 40s and 50s are at greater risk of long-term complications after being discharged from hospital after COVID-19, with many suffering months of symptoms persistent conditions such as fatigue, shortness of breath and brain fog, two UK studies found on Wednesday.
One study found that five months after leaving hospital, COVID-19 patients who were also middle-aged, white, female, and had other health problems such as diabetes, lung or heart disease, were more likely to report long-term COVID symptoms, a British wire service reported.
“Our study finds that white women around 40 to 60 with at least two long-term health conditions are the ones with the worst symptoms,” said Chris Brightling, senior a professor of respiratory medicine at the University of Leicester who co-led the study called PHOSP-COVID. A second study led by the International Consortium for Respiratory Diseases and Emerging Diseases (ISARIC) found that women younger than 50 had worse long-term health outcomes than men and women older study participants, even if they did not have underlying health conditions.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that COVID-19 has a significant impact on survivors,” said Tom Drake, a clinical researcher at the University of Edinburgh who co-directed the ISARIC study.
“We found that younger women were more likely to have worse long-term outcomes.” An ISARIC study, covering 327 patients, found that women under the age of 50 were twice as likely to report obesity, seven times more likely to be short of breath, and also more likely to have related problems. to memory, movement and communication.
The PHOSP study analyzed 1,077 male and female patients discharged from hospitals in Britain between March and November 2020 after exposure to COVID-19. A majority of patients reported several persistent symptoms after 5 months, with common symptoms such as muscle and joint pain, fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath and brain fog.
More than a quarter of doctors said they were “clinically important symptoms for anxiety and depression” at five months, and 12% had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.
