5 COVID symptoms that predict if you have long-COVID

A new study suggests that specific COVID-19 symptoms could predict how long the symptoms might last, suggesting there are symptoms that predict whether or not someone will become a long-hauler.

What’s going on?

A new study published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Medicine found that patients who suffer from five specific COVID-19 symptoms in the first week of illness are more likely to become long-haulers.

Those five symptoms include:

• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Hoarse voice
• Muscle pain
• Difficulty breathing

A look at the numbers

Per USA Today, the study comes from researchers at King’s College London, Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital. The study’s researchers asked COVID-19 patients from the U.S., U.K. and Sweden about their symptoms through a smartphone app survey.

• The study found 13% of 4,000 participants reported symptoms that lasted more than 28 days. Meanwhile, 4% reported symptoms for eight weeks and 2% reported symptoms for more than 12 days, according to USA Today.
• Study co-author Dr. Christina Astley, a physician scientist at Boston Children’s Hospital, told USA Today: “If you think about it, 1 in 20 people who have COVID-19 will have symptoms lasting eight weeks or more.”

Other research

A study from researchers at the University of Washington revealed some of the common COVID-19 symptoms for long-haulers include fatigue, which was reported by 13.6% of participants, and loss of smell and taste was also reported by 13.6%.

A separate 13% said they suffered from muscle aches, breathing troubles, cough and brain fog months after infection, which I wrote about for the Deseret News.

• “Our research indicates that the health consequences of COVID-19 extend far beyond acute infection, even among those who experience mild illness,” the authors wrote in the study, according to LiveScience.