ArticleBMJ military health2025
How long is Long-COVID? Symptomatic improvement between 12 and 18 months in a prospective cohort study.
Article in BMJ military health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Long-term neurological and cognitive impact of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis in over 4 million patients.BMC neurology · 2025Pooled it
- Facilitators and barriers for return to work among patients with post-COVID-19 condition: a qualitative interview study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Factors affecting exercise performance at the 6-min walk test in long-COVID: a multicenter study from Italy.Internal and emergency medicine · 2026Article
- Functioning of post-COVID-19 patients: a cross-sectional study at the outpatient clinic for long-term effects.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2025Article
- Course of neuropsychological health in post-COVID patients differs 6 and 12 months after inpatient rehabilitation.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- A Step Forward in Long COVID Research: Validating the Post-COVID Cognitive Impairment Scale.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionCOVID-19 infection can precede, in a proportion of patients, a prolonged syndrome including fatigue, exercise intolerance, mood and cognitive problems. This study aimed to describe the profile of fatigue-related, exercise-related, mood-related and cognitive-related outcomes in a COVID-19-exposed group compared with controls.
methods113 serving UK Armed Forces participants were followed up at 5, 12 (n=88) and 18 months (n=70) following COVID-19. At 18 months, 56 were in the COVID-19-exposed group with 14 matched controls. Exposed participants included hospitalised (n=25) and community (n=31) managed participants. 43 described at least one of the six most frequent symptoms at 5 months: fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, joint pain, exercise intolerance and anosmia. Participants completed a symptom checklist, patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), the National Institute for Health cognitive battery and a 6-minute walk test (6MWT). PROMs included the Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS), Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Patient Checklist-5 (PCL-5) for post-traumatic stress.
resultsAt 5 and 12 months, exposed participants presented with higher PHQ-9, PCL-5 and FAS scores than controls (ES (effect size) ≥0.25, p≤0.04). By 12 months, GAD-7 was not significantly different to controls (ES <0.13, p=0.292). Remaining PROMs lost significant difference by 18 months (ES ≤0.11, p≥0.28). No significant differences in the cognitive scales were observed at any time point (F=1.96, p=0.167). At 5 and 12 months, exposed participants recorded significantly lower distances on the 6MWT (η
conclusionsThis prospective cohort-controlled study observed adverse outcomes in depression, post-traumatic stress, fatigue and submaximal exercise performance up to 12 months but improved by 18-month follow-up, in participants exposed to COVID-19 compared with a matched control group.
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