COVID-Specific Long-term Sequelae in Comparison to Common Viral Respiratory Infections: An Analysis of 17 487 Infected Adult Patients

Background A better understanding of long-term health effects after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has become one of the health care priorities in the current pandemic. We analyzed a large and diverse patient cohort to study health effects related to SARS-CoV-2 infection occurring >1 month postinfection. Methods We analyzed 17 487 patients who received diagnoses for SARS-CoV-2 infection in a total of 122 health care facilities in the United States before April 14, 2022. Patients were propensity score–matched with patients diagnosed with the common cold, influenza, or viral pneumonia from March 1, 2020, to April 1, 2021. For each outcome, SARS-CoV-2 was compared with a generic viral respiratory infection (VRI) by predicting diagnoses in the period between 30 and 365 days postinfection. Both coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and VRI patients were propensity score–matched with patients with no record of COVID-19 or VRI, and the same methodology was applied. Diagnoses where COVID-19 infection was a significant positive predictor in both COVID-19 vs VRI and COVID-19 vs control comparisons were considered COVID-19-specific effects. Results Compared with common VRIs, SARS-CoV-2 was associated with diagnoses of palpitations, hair loss, fatigue, chest pain, dyspnea, joint pain, and obesity in the postinfectious period. Conclusions We identify that some diagnoses commonly described as “long COVID” do not appear significantly more frequent post–COVID-19 infection compared with other common VRIs. We also identify sequelae that are specifically associated with a prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.