Long Covid impact ‘worse than some advanced cancers’ | British News

A study has found that people living with long-term Covid have similar effects to Parkinson’s disease and are worse than some cancers.

A new study looked at the lives of 3,754 people who were referred to a clinic for the disease to find out how it was affecting people’s daily lives.

Patients were asked to answer questions via an app, giving a score between 0 and 40 to indicate severity.

Mean fatigue scores were similar or worse than in patients with cancer-related anemia or severe kidney disease, and quality of life scores were also lower than in patients with advanced cancer.

The study also found that Long-Covid’s impact on patients’ daily activities is worse than in stroke patients and comparable to that of patients with Parkinson’s disease.

The research was carried out by University College London (UCL) and the University of Exeter.

co-head dr. Henry Goodfellow, from UCL’s Institute of Epidemiology and Health, said the impact of the disease is not yet fully understood.

“Our findings have shown that long-term Covid can have a devastating impact on patients’ lives – with fatigue having the greatest impact on everything from social activities to work to household chores and maintaining close relationships,” he added.

He went on to describe “a significant economic and social impact” on those long-suffering from Covid.

About 94% of the people involved in the study were of working age (18-65 years) and more than half of them (51%) reported being unable to work for at least one day in the previous month.

dr Goodfellow said: “We hope that a better understanding of the symptoms and impact of Long-Covid in these patients will help the NHS and policymakers to target limited resources by adapting existing services and developing new ones to meet the needs of patients to cope better with Long-Covid.” .

“Our results indicate that fatigue should be an important focus of clinical care and the design of rehabilitation services.”

“Post-Covid assessment services should consider focusing on fatigue assessment and management to maximize recovery and return to work for patients long-suffering from Covid.”

Co-author Professor William Henley of the University of Exeter Medical School said: “We urgently need more research to enable the development of evidence-based services to support people trying to manage this debilitating new condition.”

Late last year, Metro.co.uk spoke to several long-term Covid patients who were candid about their experiences.

Some said they were “constantly plagued by small infections” and fatigue, while one patient found her experience so horrific that she doesn’t want to relive the trauma by talking about it.

Nic Mitchell, who first developed symptoms on Christmas Day 2019, shared how she “aged 20 years” in the first 18 months of living with the disease.

She was so ill that it took her a year and a half to walk her dogs through the park.

In March this year, 19-year-old Jasmine Laws wrote about the last two years she has long endured with Covid.

She said: “In the months following my positive Covid result, it was a normal day for me that after every stair or slight climb my heart was pounding – just getting up could cause it.”

“Extreme fatigue caused words to become slurred as my vision erratically lost focus and doubled. A ringing in my ears would dull my hearing.

“At the end of each day I felt completely exhausted, even if I spent it working from bed. ‘

Jasmine was eventually diagnosed with Long-Covid and referred to a clinic where she underwent six months of rehabilitation to “literally learn to breathe again”.

She’s been better since then, but still struggles with symptoms like chronic fatigue.

“I can’t be as athletic, social and busy as I’d like to be as a 21-year-old, but I’ve learned to live in my new reality,” added Jasmine.

To be referred to a long-term Covid clinic, people must remain symptomatic 12 weeks after acute coronavirus infection.

According to the NHS, extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, loss of smell and muscle aches are the main indicators of long-term Covid illness.

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