IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jchals/v15y2024i4p39-d1490133.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Implications of Long COVID for Society: Insights into the Physical, Social, and Financial Impacts from Patient Interviews

Author

Listed:
  • Alice A. Gaughan

    (The Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics, and Systems Thinking in Health Services and Implementation Science Research (CATALYST), College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43202, USA)

  • Laura J. Rush

    (The Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics, and Systems Thinking in Health Services and Implementation Science Research (CATALYST), College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43202, USA)

  • Ann Scheck McAlearney

    (The Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics, and Systems Thinking in Health Services and Implementation Science Research (CATALYST), College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43202, USA
    Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA)

Abstract

Long COVID affects millions of people worldwide and has emerged as a major health consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. While quantitative studies have helped paint a picture of ongoing symptomatology, there are very few longitudinal qualitative studies that present patients’ perspectives about the significant and persistent impact Long COVID has on their daily lives. To address this gap, we conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with nine Long COVID patients about 15 months after we performed an initial set of interviews with those patients who were seeking care at a Long COVID specialty clinic. Most patients that we re-interviewed reported having lingering symptoms that continue to impact their lives. Many described suffering with mental health issues, particularly depression and anxiety. Others described financial stress. Most reported not yet being unable to return to their pre-COVID level of health and well-being. Our work demonstrates the ongoing need to study Long COVID and provide robust social support, mental health resources, and healthcare focused on symptom relief.

Suggested Citation

  • Alice A. Gaughan & Laura J. Rush & Ann Scheck McAlearney, 2024. "Implications of Long COVID for Society: Insights into the Physical, Social, and Financial Impacts from Patient Interviews," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-9, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jchals:v:15:y:2024:i:4:p:39-:d:1490133
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/15/4/39/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2078-1547/15/4/39/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jchals:v:15:y:2024:i:4:p:39-:d:1490133. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.