Question explored with the scientific record
Conversation so far
- 1 A large portion of Long COVID looks exactly like ME/CFS.When Long COVID includes: Persistent profound fatigue Clear post-exertional malaise (crashes after activity) Unrefreshing sleep Cognitive problems (“brain fog”) Often orthostatic intolerance …it meets the diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS. Many researchers and clinicians now treat this subgroup of Long COVID as post-infectious ME/CFS triggered by SARS-CoV-2.The core features, the fluctuating nature, the lack of a cure, and the management approach (pacing to avoid PEM) are the same. COVID simply produced a large new cohort of people with this pattern of illness. So it is a lifetime illnes with no cure. I thought covid was not + a private exchange
- 2 is long covid a lfetime illness or can one return to a previous activity level after a time period + a private exchange
- 3 just talk long covid. what are the chances of returning to nore mal. + a private exchange
- 4 forget ME?CFS juts talk covid + a private exchange
- 5 what about not hospitalized and full functioning yet sick
- 6 What percentage of non-hospitalized people are still symptomatic at 12+ months?
Answered on this page ↓
What percentage of non-hospitalized people are still symptomatic at 12+ months?
The short version: no study here gives a clean percentage of non-hospitalized people still symptomatic at 12+ months. The closest number is a pediatric cohort, and it is not the population you asked about.
The one record with a 12-month-plus figure for non-hospitalized people is a retrospective cohort of 125 survivors [3]. It reports that depression, cognitive deficit, tics, and impaired quality of life were still more common than in 347 controls beyond 12 months [3]. But it reports odds ratios, not the share of survivors still symptomatic [3]. It also splits people by time since infection rather than following the same person forward, so it cannot tell you what fraction stayed sick [3].
The pediatric cohort is the only one that puts a percentage on the 12-week mark: 44.5% of children had persistent symptoms after 12 weeks [1]. That is 12 weeks, not 12 months, and it is children, many of whom were hospitalized [1]. A Libyan survey found symptoms lasting up to a year in a small subset, but it does not report the share still sick at 12 months [2].
| Population | Timepoint | Still symptomatic |
|---|---|---|
| Children, mixed | after 12 weeks | 44.5% [1] |
| Non-hospitalized adults | >12 months | not reported as a % [3] |
| Libyan survivors | up to 1 year | subset only, no % [2] |
My call: the honest answer is that the percentage you want is not in this evidence. The 12-month data shows elevated odds of specific symptoms, not a prevalence figure. Confidence: low, because the exact number was not measured in the studies in front of me.
Sources used 3
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Comparison of Persistent Symptoms After COVID-19 and Other Non-SARS-CoV-2 Infections in Children
In a Latvian ambidirectional cohort, 70% of children with COVID-19 reported at least one persistent symptom, and several symptoms were significantly more common in COVID-19 than in non-SARS-CoV-2 infections, indicating symptom persistence is more evident with COVID-19.
DOI: 10.3389/fped.2021.752385 -
Post-COVID-19 Syndrome: Assessment of Short and Long-Term Post-Recovery Symptoms In Recovered Cases In Western Libya
In a cross-sectional survey of 515 COVID-19 survivors in western Libya, 72% reported persistent post-recovery symptoms, with longer symptom duration and higher prevalence associated with older age and comorbidities.
DOI: 10.69667/amj.25317 -
New symptoms and prevalence of postacute COVID-19 syndrome among nonhospitalized COVID-19 survivors
In nonhospitalized COVID-19 survivors, PTSD, anxiety, depression, cognitive deficit, and tics were more prevalent than in controls, with some symptoms peaking at 6-12 months; vaccination was associated with lower cognitive deficit and quality-of-life impairment.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-21289-y