Journal Article

Well-being among people with long and short COVID: a serial cross-sectional study in Victoria, Australia

Hellard, Margaret, Stoové, Mark, Gibney, Katherine B, Heath, Katherine, Ke, Tianhui, Gibbs, Lisa, Nguyen, Thi, Lusher, Dean, Zhang, Yanqin, Thomas, Alexander J, Wilkinson, Anna L, Pedrana, Alisa, Jin, Defeng, Altermatt, Aimée, Ryan, Rebecca E, Fletcher-Lartey, Stephanie

2025

Overview

BackgroundIt is critical to disseminate all evidence on long COVID’s impact on people’s lives to inform policy and practice. We aimed to assess five measures of well-being, before and after SARS-CoV-2 infection between people with long COVID (defined as symptoms lasting more than 1 month) and people with short COVID (defined as symptoms resolving within 1 month).MethodsParticipants from the Optimise Study, a longitudinal cohort study in Victoria, Australia (September 2020–August 2022), had self-reported history of SARS-CoV-2 infection and self-reported long COVID status. Serial cross-sectional analysis compared participants with long and short COVID on Personal Well-being Index, number of COVID-19-like symptoms experienced, number of days exercised and frequency of experiencing positive and negative emotions.Results217 participants were included, aged 20–86 years (median age 43, IQR: 31–57), 75% women. Compared with those with short COVID, participants with long COVID had lower well-being before (mean difference (MD)=−8.3, 95% CI (-14.7, –2.0), p-adjusted=0.07), during (MD=−10.3, 95% CI (–16.5, –4.0), p-adjusted=0.03) and after (MD=−9.91, 95% CI (–16.71, –3.11), p-adjusted=0.05) infection and experienced more COVID-19-like symptoms during infection (MD=1.72 (0.72, 2.72), p-adjusted=0.03). In December 2022, 71% (40/56) reported difficulty performing tasks in the past 4 weeks.ConclusionOn average, we observed lower well-being among participants with long COVID, including before SARS-CoV-2 infection, suggesting an underlying difference in well-being between groups. Long COVID continued to impact physical functioning, but ongoing changes were not detected by personal well-being scales.

• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group Ltd,BMJ Publishing Group LTD,BMJ Publishing Group
• Subject: Cohort analysis / COVID-19 / COVID-19 diagnostic tests / Diaries / Emotions / Epidemiology / Infections / Life satisfaction / Long COVID / Original research / Pandemics / PersonalWell-beingIndex / Public health / Quality of life / Self report / Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 / Well being