ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2021
Clinical coding of long COVID in English primary care: a federated analysis of 58 million patient records
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed.
- Differences in diagnostic coding in long COVID: sociodemographic and symptom interference factors.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- A mixed-methods study comparing clinical and patient-reported perspectives on long COVID: insights from electronic health records and narrative journal entries.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Observational
- Evolution with age of the relationship between sex and post-COVID symptoms: a population-based cohort study.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Ethnic differences in Long COVID diagnosed in primary care in England (2020-2022): an observational cohort study using OpenSAFELY.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2026Article
- Considerations for epidemiological studies investigating emerging post-acute infection syndromes: Long Covid as a case study.EClinicalMedicine · 2026Review
- Effect of Metformin on the Risk of Post-COVID-19 Condition Among Individuals With Overweight or Obese: A Population-based Retrospective Cohort Study.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2026Article
- Prevalence, Risk Factors, Disease-Related Knowledge, and Vaccination Attitudes and Behaviors for Long COVID Among French Civil Servants: Cross-Sectional Survey.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Article
- Patient characteristics associated with clinically coded long COVID: an OpenSAFELY study using electronic health records.BJGP open · 2025Article
- The effect of uninterrupted and interrupted sitting on vascular function in adults with long COVID.Physiological reports · 2025Article
- Understanding the Clinical Characteristics and Timeliness of Diagnosis for Patients Diagnosed With Long Covid: A Retrospective Observational Cohort Study From North West London.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2025Observational
- Remote Consultations in England During COVID-19: Challenges in Data Quality, Linkage, and Research Validity.Online journal of public health informatics · 2025Article
- Assessing the Impact of Post-COVID Clinics on 6-Month Health Care Utilization for Patients With Long COVID: A Single-Center Experience.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes · 2025Article
- Self-reported Health Service Utilization and Barriers to Care Among US Adults with a History of Post COVID-19 Condition.Journal of general internal medicine · 2025Article
- An international comparison of longitudinal health data collected on long COVID in nine high income countries: a qualitative data analysis.Health research policy and systems · 2025Article
- Heterogeneity of diagnosis and documentation of post-COVID conditions in primary care: A machine learning analysis.PloS one · 2025Observational
- Article
- Incidence of post-acute COVID-19 symptoms across healthcare settings in seven countries: an international retrospective cohort study using routinely-collected data.EClinicalMedicine · 2024Article
- Non-communicable diseases: research priorities to mitigate impact of health system shocks.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2024Article
- Prevalence, risk factors and characterisation of individuals with long COVID using Electronic Health Records in over 1.5 million COVID cases in England.The Journal of infection · 2024Article
- Long COVID demographic and secondary care referral characteristics in primary care: analysis of anonymised primary care data from a multiethnic, deprived urban area in the UK.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2024Article
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41 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLong COVID describes new or persistent symptoms at least 4 weeks after onset of acute COVID-19. Clinical codes to describe this phenomenon were recently created.
aimTo describe the use of long-COVID codes, and variation of use by general practice, demographic variables, and over time. DESIGN AND
settingPopulation-based cohort study in English primary care.
methodWorking on behalf of NHS England, OpenSAFELY data were used encompassing 96% of the English population between 1 February 2020 and 25 May 2021. The proportion of people with a recorded code for long COVID was measured overall and by demographic factors, electronic health record software system (EMIS or TPP), and week.
resultsLong COVID was recorded for 23 273 people. Coding was unevenly distributed among practices, with 26.7% of practices having never used the codes. Regional variation ranged between 20.3 per 100 000 people for East of England (95% confidence interval [CI] = 19.3 to 21.4) and 55.6 per 100 000 people in London (95% CI = 54.1 to 57.1). Coding was higher among females (52.1, 95% CI = 51.3 to 52.9) than males (28.1, 95% CI = 27.5 to 28.7), and higher among practices using EMIS (53.7, 95% CI = 52.9 to 54.4) than those using TPP (20.9, 95% CI = 20.3 to 21.4).
conclusionCurrent recording of long COVID in primary care is very low, and variable between practices. This may reflect patients not presenting; clinicians and patients holding different diagnostic thresholds; or challenges with the design and communication of diagnostic codes. Increased awareness of diagnostic codes is recommended to facilitate research and planning of services, and also surveys with qualitative work to better evaluate clinicians' understanding of the diagnosis.
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