LCH Long COVID Study- What You Need to Know

Event Recap

On November 3rd, the Latino Center for Health (LCH) hosted the Latinx Long COVID Symposium—Study Findings & Pathways to Health. The interactive event featured in-person attendance at Heritage University, and remote attendance via Zoom, and convened 50 local community leaders, elected officials, health officials, and key stakeholders from across the state.

The symposium presented the findings from the long COVID study conducted by the LCH, which surveyed Latino patients from across Washington state to determine the prevalence of long COVID and its impacts on the physical, mental, and social well-being of those affected. The study was conducted in partnership with SeaMar Community Health Centers, Yakima Valley Farmworkers Clinic, the Allen Institute for Immunology, DataStat, and the UW Medicine Long COVID Clinic.

Key Takeaways

Some key takeaways from the long COVID study are:

41% of survey respondents reported symptom duration consistent with long COVID.
Fatigue, muscle pain, anxiety, and sleep difficulty were the four most commonly reported long COVID symptoms. See figure below.

29% of respondents with long COVID symptoms reported having a change in their health of ‘‘worse’ or ‘much worse’ after their first COVID infection, compared to 7% of those without long COVID symptoms.
Respondents with long COVID symptoms were more likely to report changes across quality of life measures including pain, mental health, sleep, social function, cognitive function, physical function, and fatigue. See figure below.

39% of respondents with long COVID symptoms reported being very worried about losing their job if they were to miss two days of work due to illness.

Symposium Discussions

Towards the end of the symposium, participants moved into breakout rooms and discussed strategic next steps. LCH notetakers transcribed these conversations and plan to take the insights and input from the wide range of voices that participated to highlight areas of need and inform policy recommendations.

What’s Next?

The LCH will disseminate several materials related to the long COVID study and symposium in the coming weeks, including:

A policy brief, accessible via the LCH website
An infographic, highlighting key insights from the study
A full recording of the Symposium

If you have questions regarding the study, symposium, or future collaboration with the Latino Center for Health, please email latcntr@uw.edu.

Materials

Slides presented at the long COVID Symposium by Dr. Leo Morales of the Latino Center for Health, and Jazmine Castillo and Samir Racid Zaim of the Allen Institute for Immunology:

LCH-Long-COVID-Symposium-Slides Download

Slides presented at the long COVID Symposium by Dr. Janna Friedly of UW Medicine:

Janna-Friedly-Slides Download

The LCH is conducting a study that seeks to determine how many members of the Latino community are currently affected by long COVID, and how it is impacting their health and well-being.

February 27, 2023

The Latino Center for Health (LCH) is conducting a study to better understand the extent and impact of long COVID on the state’s Latino communities.

Partners in the study are SeaMar Community Health Centers, the Allen Institute for Immunology, and the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic.

Study leader Dr. Leo Morales, a professor of medicine at the UW School of Medicine and co-director of the Latino Center for Health, will direct the survey which focuses on Latinos age 18 years and older who have had a positive COVID-19 test result. The questionnaire will include questions about symptoms, the respondents’ medical history, whether they received the COVID vaccine, their physical and mental health, and their social and economic situations.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Latinos have the highest rates of long COVID. About 9% of Hispanic adults report symptoms, compared with 7.5% of U.S. adults overall.

“With this survey we hope to determine how many members of the Latino community are currently affected by long COVID, and how it is impacting their health and well-being,” said Morales.

Photo of Dr. Leo Morales — Dr. Leo Morales, co-director of the Latino Center for Health, is leading the LCH’s study on long COVID.

“Since the onset of the pandemic, Latino communities in Washington state have had higher rates of COVID-19 infection than the general population, higher rates of hospitalization, and higher rates of mortality on an age-adjusted basis,” Morales noted. “Yet we are not seeing many people from Latino communities showing up in our long-COVID clinics.”

The study will use the World Health Organization’s definition of long COVID: symptoms that began within three months of a probable or confirmed case of infection, which have persisted at least two months and cannot be explained by another diagnosis. Common long-COVID symptoms include fatigue, fever, cough and difficulty breathing, and problems with memory and thinking, often called “brain fog.”

“Many Latinos may not be aware of the symptoms of long COVID,” Morales said. “I suspect that a lot of people in Latino communities don’t know they have long COVID. They’re feeling badly, they’re having problems with fatigue or brain fog; they’re just not doing well, but they don’t exactly know why. Helping people understand what is going on and guiding them to evaluation and treatment is important.”

Morales said he hopes the project’s findings will not only help improve care of Latino individuals affected by long COVID, but also help guide policymakers to develop appropriate long-COVID services for Latino communities.

Tag: Long COVID