Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39078547›Full record

ArticleQuality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation2024

The faces of Long-COVID: interplay of symptom burden with socioeconomic, behavioral and healthcare factors.

Carolyn E Schwartz, Katrina Borowiec, Bruce D Rapkin

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Article in Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

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0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Long-COVID symptom burden and the experience of adversity: the importance of response-shift effects over 3 years of the pandemic.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2025
    Article
  4. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Carolyn E SchwartzDeltaQuest Foundation, Inc., Concord, MA, USA. carolyn.schwartz@deltaquest.org.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9173-7774
Katrina BorowiecDeltaQuest Foundation, Inc., Concord, MA, USA.
Bruce D RapkinDepartment of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

aimsThe long-term effects of COVID-19 (Long COVID) include 19 symptoms ranging from mild to debilitating. We examined multidimensional correlates of Long COVID symptom burden.

methodsThis study focused on participants who reported having had COVID in Spring 2023 (n = 656; 85% female, mean age = 55, 59% college). Participants were categorized into symptom-burden groups using Latent Profile Analysis of 19 Long-COVID symptoms. Measures included demographics; quality of life and well-being (QOL); and COVID-specific stressors. Bivariate and multivariate associations of symptom burden were examined.

resultsA three-profile solution reflected low, medium, and high symptom burden, aligning with diagnosis confirmation and treatment by a healthcare provider. Higher symptom burden was associated with reporting more comorbidities; being unmarried, difficulty paying bills, being disabled from work, not having a college degree, younger age, higher body mass index, having had COVID multiple times, worse reported QOL, greater reported financial hardship and worry; maladaptive coping, and worse healthcare disruption, health/healthcare stress, racial-inequity stress, family-relationship problems, and social support. Multivariate modeling revealed that financial hardship, worry, risk-taking, comorbidities, health/healthcare stress, and younger age were risk factors for higher symptom burden, whereas social support and reducing substance use were protective factors.

conclusionsLong-COVID symptom burden is associated with substantial, modifiable social and behavioral factors. Most notably, financial hardship was associated with more than three times the risk of high versus low Long-COVID symptom burden. These findings suggest the need for multi-pronged support in the absence of a cure, such as symptom palliation, telehealth, social services, and psychosocial support.

Indexed as

COVID-19Quality of LifeSARS-CoV-2Socioeconomic FactorsAdaptation, PsychologicalAdultAgedComorbidityCost of IllnessFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedPost-Acute COVID-19 SyndromeStress, PsychologicalSymptom BurdenDiscriminationFinancial hardshipLong COVIDQuality of lifeSocial determinants of healthStressSymptom burden

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.