Among patients seen at long-COVID clinics in four countries, older people were the most likely to report symptoms and have abnormal chest imaging and lung function tests, finds a study published late last week in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.Researchers in Israel, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland followed 2,333 COVID-19 survivors for an average of 5 months to compare symptoms between patients ages 18 to 65 years and those 66 years and older and identify risk factors for persistent fatigue and shortness of breath.Average patient age was 51 years, 20.5% were 66 years and older, and all were interviewed at one of five hospital-based long-COVID clinics or through phone interviews from May 2020 to March 2021.Increased abnormal chest imaging, dysfunctionWomen made up a greater proportion of the younger group than the older group (51.6% vs 39.5%).
Older patients were more likely than their younger counterparts to smoke (41.9% vs 29.5%), be sedentary (49.5% vs 28.2%), and have more underlying illnesses and medication use.Older patients also had higher rates of severe or critical COVID-19 (58.4% vs 24.4%) and hospital admission (79.1% vs 39.8%) and longer average hospital stays (18 vs 13 days).
The only symptom significantly more common in the older group during the acute infection was shortness of breath (64.3% vs 56.6%).While older participants more often reported cough and joint pain as part of long-COVID symptoms, the younger group reported more sore throats, nasal congestion, headaches, chest pains, heart palpitations, impaired concentration, emotional distress, and loss of smell and taste.The older group visited the recovery clinic roughly 1 month sooner than younger participants (average days after