Dr. Kelli O'Laughlin is Co-Author of Study on Prolonged COVID-19 Symptoms

Dr. Kelli O'Laughlin is a co-author of a recently published study in Clinical Infectious Diseases that looked at prolonged symptoms 3 months post-SARS-CoV-2 infection across 3 variant time periods (pre-Delta, Delta, and Omicron).

The study titled, 'Severe Fatigue and Persistent Symptoms at 3 Months Following Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infections During the Pre-Delta, Delta, and Omicron Time Periods: A Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study' included 2402 COVID-positive and 821 COVID-negative participants.

Methods:

This multicenter prospective cohort study of adults with acute illness tested for SARS-CoV-2 compared fatigue severity, fatigue symptoms, organ system–based symptoms, and ≥3 symptoms across variants among participants with a positive (“COVID-positive”) or negative SARS-CoV-2 test (“COVID-negative”) at 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 testing. Variant periods were defined by dates with ≥50% dominant strain. We performed multivariable logistic regression modeling to estimate independent effects of variants adjusting for sociodemographics, baseline health, and vaccine status.

Conclusions:

Prolonged symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 infection were more common among participants infected during pre-Delta than with Delta and Omicron; however, these differences were no longer significant after adjusting for vaccination status, suggesting a beneficial effect of vaccination on risk of long-term symptoms.