{"id":858637,"date":"2026-09-24T06:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T06:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/858637\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T06:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T06:14:17","slug":"more-than-1-in-10-us-healthcare-workers-report-ongoing-long-covid-symptoms-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/858637\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 1 in 10 US healthcare workers report ongoing long-COVID symptoms, study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than one in 10 US healthcare personnel (HCP) reported persistent moderate or severe long-COVID symptoms at both three and six months after infection, according to a\u00a0study<\/a> published this week in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The study also found that older age, female sex, multiple underlying health conditions, and multiple COVID infections were associated with greater odds of persistent symptoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese findings underscore the frequency of persistent Long COVID symptoms among HCP and their potential to strain the healthcare workforce,\u201d write the researchers, who were led by a team from University of Iowa Health Care.<\/p>\n

Fatigue most commonly reported symptom<\/p>\n

The study involved HCP from 17 states who tested positive for COVID from August 2022 to May 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The participants, who all had symptomatic infections, completed surveys at three months and six months, reporting on symptoms including fatigue, respiratory symptoms, dizziness, joint pain, loss of taste or smell, abdominal pain, cognitive issues, and mood changes. They rated their symptoms on a scale that ranged from \u201cno symptoms\u201d to \u201csevere symptoms.\u201d<\/p>\n

These findings underscore the frequency of persistent Long COVID symptoms among HCP and their potential to strain the healthcare workforce.<\/p>\n

Of the 1,496 participants who completed both surveys, 169, or 11.3%, reported at least one persistent symptom at both three and six months. Fatigue was the most commonly reported symptom.\u00a0An even higher percentage of participants reported moderate or severe symptoms at one, but not both, time points: 19.3% at three months and 27.5% at six months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ongoing symptoms varied by age, sex, job<\/p>\n

Older age was associated with greater odds of persistent symptoms. Compared with participants ages 18 to 29, those ages 50 to 64 years had nearly twice the odds of persistent symptoms (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.94), and those 65 years and older had three and a half times the odds (aOR, 3.52). Women had triple the rate of persistent long-COVID symptoms than men did (aOR, 3.05).<\/p>\n

HCP with at least two underlying health conditions had two and half times greater odds of ongoing symptoms (aOR, 2.49), while a confirmed COVID infection in the previous year was associated with nearly two times greater odds (aOR, 1.78).<\/p>\n

Job role was also associated with persistent symptoms. Physicians (aOR, 0.21), licensed practical and registered nurses (aOR, 0.59), and therapists or therapist assistants (aOR, 0.27) had lower odds than HCP in other roles.<\/p>\n

Vaccination findings \u2018unexpected\u2019<\/p>\n

Recent COVID vaccination was associated with a 44% higher rate of persistent symptoms compared with no vaccination in the prior six months, findings the researchers call \u201cunexpected.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

They hypothesize that the results may have been influenced by selection or misclassification bias, and they note that the results were self-reported, without benchmarks for moderate or severe symptoms. They also caution that the study wasn\u2019t designed to determine the effects of vaccination.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, the researchers conclude, \u201cThese results underscore the ongoing and substantial burden of Long COVID among HCP and suggest there may be an impact on healthcare workforce sustainability, through possible needs for accommodations, reduced hours, modified schedules, or role changes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than one in 10 US healthcare personnel (HCP) reported persistent moderate or severe long-COVID symptoms at both…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-858637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}