Integrating patient-reported physical, mental, and social impacts to classify long COVID experiences

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 16288 - 10
• Main Authors: Vartanian, Keri, Fish, Daniel, Kenton, Natalie, Gronowski, Benjamin, Wright, Bill, Robicsek, Ari
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 28.09.2023; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 692/699/255/2514; 692/700/228; 692/700/784; Cognitive ability; Humanities and Social Sciences; Long COVID; Medical records; multidisciplinary; Population studies; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Social impact
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-43615-8

Long COVID was originally identified through patient-reported experiences of prolonged symptoms. Many studies have begun to describe long COVID; however, this work typically focuses on medical records, instead of patient experiences, and lacks a comprehensive view of physical, mental, and social impacts. As part of our larger My COVID Diary (MCD) study, we captured patient experiences using a prospective and longitudinal patient-reported outcomes survey (PROMIS-10) and free-text narrative submissions. From this study population, we selected individuals who were still engaged in the MCD study and reporting poor health (PROMIS-10 scores < 3) at 6 months (n = 634). We used their PROMIS-10 and narrative data to describe and classify their long COVID experiences. Using Latent Class Analysis of the PROMIS-10 data, we identified four classifications of long COVID experiences: a few lingering issues (n = 107), significant physical symptoms (n = 113), ongoing mental and cognitive struggles (n = 235), and numerous compounding challenges (n = 179); each classification included a mix of physical, mental, and social health struggles with varying levels of impairment. The classifications were reinforced and further explained by patient narratives. These results provide a new understanding of the varying ways that long COVID presents to help identify and care for patients.