ArticleCommunications medicine2025
A nationwide study of risk factors for long COVID and its economic and mental health consequences in the United States.
Article in Communications medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed.
- The securitization of global slow-onset risks/threats: long COVID, a case study.Globalization and health · 2026Article
- Characteristics Associated with Mental and Physical Health Among US Adults with Long COVID.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Prevalence and Associations of Medical Expenditure Panel Survey-Defined Long COVID Among Adults: Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Long COVID and Subjective Wellbeing among U.S. Working-Age Adults.Research square · 2026Article
- Multi-scale data improves performance of machine learning model for long COVID identification.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Review
- Cost-effectiveness of a brief cognitive-behavioral outpatient rehabilitation program for patients with post-COVID-19 condition within a pragmatic randomized controlled trial.Cost effectiveness and resource allocation : C/E · 2026Article
- Long COVID and the Challenge of Long-Term Employment: An Ecological, Sequential Explanatory Mixed-Methods Approach.Journal of occupational rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Prepandemic Risk Factors for Disabling Long COVID: A Prospective Cohort Analysis.Journal of tropical medicine · 2026Article
- Supporting the psychosocial well-being of patients with Long COVID: patient-informed strategies from a qualitative study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Microtesla magnetic therapy for cognitive impairment in long COVID: a randomized pilot study.Brain communications · 2026Article
- COVID-19 symptom duration: evidence from a survey of infected workers in Tokyo.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Long COVID Is Associated with Excess Direct Healthcare Expenditures Among Adults in the United States.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
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Abstract
backgroundIn the United States, concerns have been increasingly raised over the future public health and economic burden of long COVID including disability and declines in labor force participation. However, only a handful of U.S. studies have explored sociodemographic or socioeconomic characteristics that put people at risk of long COVID or have investigated its economic and mental health sequelae.
methodsUsing repeated cross-sectional data on over 375,000 adults including nearly 50,000 adults with long COVID pooled from U.S. nationally-representative Household Pulse Survey data collected between September and November 2022 and between August and October 2023, I fit age- and gender-adjusted and multivariable modified Poisson regression models to examine multiple sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors as predictors of long COVID. I further estimate the risks of unemployment, financial hardship, and anxiety and depression among working-aged adults and adults with current long COVID symptoms, and estimate the economic burden of lost wages due to long COVID.
resultsNearly one in seven adults (~35 million) and working-aged adults (~30 million) reported having a history of long COVID by late 2022 and late 2023. In age- and gender-adjusted models and fully-adjusted multivariable models, I find several factors predict long COVID including lower household income, and being Hispanic, female, gay/lesbian or bisexual. I also find having long COVID is linked to higher risks of recent unemployment, financial hardship, and anxiety and depressive symptomatology, with evidence of dose-response relationships.
conclusionsOverall, an estimated 24 million working-aged adults with long COVID had been or may still be at risk of adverse socioeconomic and mental health outcomes. The lost earnings due to long COVID among working-aged adults are estimated to total $211 billion in 2022 and $218 billion in 2023. These findings highlight the substantial public health and economic implications of long COVID among Americans.
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