Taquet M, Dercon Q, Luciano S, et al. - Researchers examined the risk of having features of long-COVID, which refers to a variety of symptoms affecting different organs reported by people following Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, as well as investigated their relationship to age, gender, and severity of infection, and the extent to which they are specific to COVID-19.

• Linked electronic health records (EHRs) data from 81 million patients including 273,618 COVID-19 survivors were used to perform this retrospective cohort study.

• The risk of 9 core features of long-COVID (breathing difficulties/breathlessness, fatigue/malaise, chest/throat pain, headache, abdominal symptoms, myalgia, other pain, cognitive symptoms, and anxiety/depression) was determined in different groups within the population and was compared with that after influenza.

• Between 3 and 6 months after a diagnosis of COVID-19, one or more features of long-COVID were evident in over 1 in 3 patients; after influenza, their occurrence was significantly higher.

• Two in 5 patients describing long-COVID features in the 3- to 6-month period, had no record of any such feature in the prior 3 months.

• Patients who had more severe COVID-19 illness are at higher risk, and females and young adults are at slightly higher risk of developing long-COVID features.

• Equal effects on white and non-white patients was evident.