Study unexpectedly finds only 7 health symptoms directly related to ‘long COVID’

According to Missouri University, researchers have made a significant discovery related to 'long COVID' symptoms. They have analyzed 47 prominent symptoms and gained insights into the potential mutation or evolution of SARS-CoV-2. The researchers utilized Oracle Cerner real-world data from electronic medical records, which contained de-identified medical information meant for research purposes, to develop their findings.

The researchers conducted a study indicating that people with "long COVID" may experience a maximum of seven health symptoms for up to one year after the infection. The study, which has been published in the journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases, lists the following symptoms: fast heartbeat, hair loss, fatigue, chest pain, shortness of breath, joint pain and obesity. The research was based on an analysis of Oracle Cerner real-world data from electronic medical records that contained de-identified information for research purposes in the medical field.

Chi-Ren Shyu, the director of the MU Institute for Data Science and Informatics and the corresponding author of the study shared their findings.

"Despite an overwhelming number of long COVID symptoms previously reported by other studies, we only found a few symptoms specifically related to an infection from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19," Chi-Ren Shyu said.

The study entitled "COVID-specific long-term sequelae in comparison to common viral respiratory infections: an analysis of 17,487 infected adult patients."

For this study, the researchers scrutinized health data from 52,461 patients across 122 healthcare facilities in the United States. They selected the 47 most frequently reported symptoms from 'long COVID' and compared them across three subgroups. The first subgroup consisted of individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 but no common viral respiratory infections. The second subgroup comprised individuals with common viral respiratory infections but not COVID-19, while the third subgroup had individuals without any viral respiratory infections, including COVID-19.

In addition to his role as the Paul K. and Dianne Shumaker Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the MU College of Engineering, Shyu believes that the study's outcomes could assist other researchers in comprehending how SARS-CoV-2 evolves or mutates by creating new connections.

Adnan Qureshi, a professor of neurology at the MU School of Medicine and co-author of the study, reported that the results would provide healthcare practitioners with valuable information on what to ask and look for when dealing with patients who exhibit long COVID symptoms.

The concept of long COVID was developed after clinicians started noticing a group of people who were dubbed “survivors” of COVID-19 was “not necessarily normal anymore.”

"The survivors still have symptoms that are at times disabling and preventing them from going back to work or the activities of their daily life," Qureshi said. "This is not because the COVID-19 infection is still active, but instead the infection has caused long-term consequences."

Moreover, Qureshi expressed his opinion that the study's conclusions could be beneficial for researchers who are investigating other aspects of COVID-19, such as the virus's impact on the immune system or brain.

"Our research was able to identify long-term sequelae that are distinctive to COVID-19 and separate the post-COVID syndrome from other post-viral syndromes," Qureshi said.

The study was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (5T32LM012410) and co-authored by Jane Armer and William Baskett at MU, as well as Daniel Shyu at the University of Minnesota.

The authors emphasized that they are solely responsible for the content and that it does not necessarily reflect the official views of the funding agencies.