Is the Pandemic Wearing Us Out? A Cross-Sectional Study of the Prevalence of Fatigue in Adult Twins without Previous SARS-CoV-2 Infection

• Published in: Journal of clinical medicine Vol. 11; no. 23; p. 7067
• Main Authors: Rupp, Sophia Kristina, Weimer, Katja, Goebel-Stengel, Miriam, Enck, Paul, Zipfel, Stephan, Stengel, Andreas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 29.11.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Clinical medicine; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Cross-sectional studies; Fatigue; Infections; Influence; Mental health; Pandemics; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Social research; Twin studies; Twins; twins; psychosomatic; brain fog; somatoform; mental health
• DOI: 10.3390/jcm11237067
• ISSN: 2077-0383

During the pandemic, mental health was not only impaired in people after a SARS-CoV-2 infection, but also in people without previous infection. This is the first study on twins without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection to estimate the influence of genetic components and shared as well as individual environments on pandemic-associated fatigue. The study sample included 55 monozygotic and 45 dizygotic twin pairs. A total of 34.5% reported an increase in fatigue since the pandemic. A significant correlation was shown between the responses within monozygotic (χ2[1] = 11.14, p = 0.001) and dizygotic pairs (χ2[1] = 18.72, p < 0.001). In all pandemic-associated fatigue dimensions, individual environment (ranging from e2 = 0.64 to e2 = 0.84) and heritability (ranging from h2 = 0.32 to h2 = 1.04) seem to have the highest impact. The number of comorbidities significantly correlated with physical fatigue (Spearman’s ρ = 0.232, p < 0.001) and psychological impairment due to pandemic measures with the total fatigue score (Spearman’s ρ = 0.243, p < 0.001). However, calculated ANCOVAs with these significant correlations as covariates showed no significant influence on the mean values of the respective fatigue dimensions. Susceptibility to pandemic-associated fatigue may be genetically and environmentally determined, while intensity is also influenced by individual components. The prevalence of fatigue is high even in individuals without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. Future mental health prevention and intervention programs should be implemented to alleviate the impact of the pandemic on the global population.