Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA), Maastricht University, The Netherlands.
Centre for Global Health Inequalities Research (CHAIN), Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway.
Scand J Public Health. 2023 Jul;51(5):645-647. doi: 10.1177/14034948221143421.
It is estimated that at least one out of 10 people who contracted COVID-19 continue to experience health problems long after the clearance of the acute infection. These belong to the growing group of people who have post-acute sequelae of SARS CoV-2 infection or long COVID, a multifaceted condition involving multiple organ systems. Given the lack of clear definition and diagnosis, this marked increase in the number of people who have long COVID might not be fully reflected in data on population health in the years to come. In this editorial, we argue that the use of self-reported health measures is vital for fully assessing the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health and health inequalities. After briefly introducing self-reported health measures, we discuss strengths and limitations of specific measures that capture direct self-reports of long COVID. We then outline how the impact of long COVID may also be reflected in response patterns to more general self-reported health measures and give suggestions on how these can be used to examine the long-term health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
据估计，至少每 10 个感染 COVID-19 的人中就有 1 个在急性感染清除后仍长期存在健康问题。这些人属于越来越多的患有急性 SARS-CoV-2 感染后后遗症或长新冠的人群，这是一种涉及多个器官系统的多方面疾病。由于缺乏明确的定义和诊断，未来几年人群健康数据中可能无法充分反映出患有长新冠的人数的显著增加。在这篇社论中，我们认为使用自我报告的健康措施对于全面评估 COVID-19 大流行对健康和健康不平等的长期影响至关重要。在简要介绍自我报告的健康措施后，我们讨论了特定措施的优缺点，这些措施可以直接捕捉长新冠的自我报告。然后，我们概述了长新冠的影响如何也可以反映在更普遍的自我报告健康措施的反应模式中，并就如何使用这些措施来检查 COVID-19 大流行对长期健康的影响提出了建议。
