Have you experienced symptoms of fatigue and breathlessness, headaches or brain fog? Then you may be among the two to seven per cent of the population who suffer from what researchers call long-COVID or post-COVID.
After the COVID-19 pandemic started, there was a wide variation in how sick people became. Some were almost asymptomatic. They knew they had the virus because it had been diagnosed, but they felt no symptoms. Others were bedridden for days or even weeks, and some even had to be hospitalised. And then it became clear that some of these people were not recovering from their symptoms. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines COVID symptoms that are evident three months after infection as long-COVID or post-COVID.
Long-COVID is part of the focus of the project ‘Long-term health sequels of COVID-19 infections and mitigation responses in Nordic populations.’ Unnur Anna Valdimarsdóttir is an epidemiologist at the University of Iceland and leads the NordForsk-funded project.
Long-COVID should get more attention
"At the beginning of the pandemic, the focus of authorities was naturally on introducing a number of restrictions in order to reduce the spread of the virus. The reasoning was that we had to save lives. But we weren't aware that we were also imposing these restrictions to save people from becoming long-term sick, to the extent of not being able to work or enjoy a normal life. In our research, it's important for us to understand the extent of the long-term health consequences of the pandemic, and there are many things we still don't know about long-COVID," she says and continues:
"Our results show that there is a segment of the population that suffers from symptoms for a long time after contracting SARS-CoV-2, even for years. So, when we think about how to respond to pandemics of this kind in the future, we need to consider not only hospitalisations and deaths, but also the risk of long-term illness and disability. I think one of the important learning points from our and other’s research is that when we are hit by a pandemic of this kind, it's not just the immediate consequences that count."
What should we do in future pandemics with respect to long-term health consequences?
"Our research and that of others shows that we can benefit from close co-operation within the Nordic countries to establish monitoring of these long-term consequences in future pandemics. And that we can jointly organise and optimize healthcare for those who need rehabilitation due to the long-term consequences."
Mental consequences of the pandemic
In addition to long-COVID, researchers have also studied other health consequences such as psychiatric disorders and cardiovascular diseases across the Nordic countries. They are currently looking at how different mitigation strategies in the Nordic countries may have affected mental health.
"We have already seen that high prevalence of COVID-19 in the Nordic countries was associated with higher prevalence of depressive symptoms in the population. But the question is whether the mitigation strategies also have an effect on mental health, both in short and long-term and across age groups. One thing that was really positive was that vaccination uptake among people with psychiatric disorders was quite high in the Nordic countries, with the exception of those not receiving pharmaceutical treatment for their mental health conditions."
Nordic data is interesting globally
According to Unnur Anna Valdimarsdóttir, there is great Nordic added value in collaborating across the Nordic countries. She mentions, for example, the unique access to similar health registry data and the fact that we are societies that have many similarities, including publicly funded health care system. But the results of the research are not only interesting for the Nordic countries:
"What is important for the Nordic countries is also important globally. The Nordic countries offer a rather unique research setting because we are a very data-rich part of the world. So, our results are not only important for the Nordic countries, but also globally."
