Nearly 18M adults in US have struggled with long COVID: survey

Nearly 18 million U.S. adults reported having struggled with long COVID-19 as of 2022, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report. 

The report, published Tuesday, found that about 6.9 percent of adults reported that they had experienced long COVID in last year’s National Health Interview Survey, and about 3.4 percent of adults reported that they were currently suffering from long COVID at the time. 

The report noted significant differences in those most likely to report having had long COVID in terms of sex and sociodemographic characteristics.

Women were more likely than men to report currently having or ever having had long COVID. In the 2022 survey, about 8.5 percent of women said they had ever had it and only about 5.2 percent of men said the same. Similarly, about 4.4 percent of women said they currently had it, while just 2.3 percent of men said they did. 

Those between the ages of 35 and 49 were also more likely than other specified age groups to report currently having or ever having had long COVID. About 8.9 percent of adults ages 35-49 said they had ever had it, while the same was reported by only about 6.9 percent of adults ages 18-34, about 7.6 percent of adults ages 50-64, and about 4.1 percent of adults 65 and older. Comparable differences were seen among the age groups regarding those who said they currently had long COVID.

Hispanic adults were also more likely to have ever had long COVID, at 8.3 percent, than those in other racial and ethnic demographics. Non-Hispanic white adults were slightly more likely than the average to have had long COVID, at 7.1 percent, and Black non-Hispanic adults were less likely, at 5.4 percent. Asian non-Hispanic adults were even less likely to have had it, at 2.6 percent. 

The survey defined having long COVID as “self-reporting the presence of symptoms for at least 3 months after having COVID-19 among those who reported either a positive test or doctor’s diagnosis of COVID-19.”