Shariati Matin, Gill Kieran Luke, Peddle Mark, Cao Ying, Xie Fangli, Han Xiao, Lei Nan, Prowse Rachel, Shan Desai, Fang Lisa, Huang Vita, Ding Arianna, Wang Peizhong Peter
Division of Population Health and Applied Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, 300 Prince Philip Drive, St. John's, NL A1B 3V6, Canada.
Centre for New Immigrant Well-Being (CNIW), 96 Scarsdale Road, Toronto, ON M3B 2R7, Canada.
Biomedicines. 2025 Apr 13;13(4):953. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines13040953.
As the COVID-19 pandemic evolved, long COVID emerged as a significant threat to public health, characterized by one or more persistent symptoms impacting organ systems beyond 12 weeks of infection. Informative research has been derived from assessments of long COVID among the Chinese populace. However, none of these studies considered the COVID-19 experience of Chinese residents in Canada. We aimed to fill this literature gap by delineating the long COVID experience, prevalence, and associated factors among a sample of Chinese residing in Canada during the pandemic. : The present study employed a cross-sectional online survey questionnaire distributed to a sample of Canadian Chinese using a convenience sampling procedure from 22 December 2022 to 15 February 2023. Respondents were probed for sociodemographic background and health-, COVID-, and vaccine-related characteristics. Logistic LASSO regression was used for model building, and multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with developing long COVID. : Among 491 eligible participants, 63 (12.83%) reported experiencing long COVID with a mean duration of 5.31 (95% CI: 4.06-6.57) months and major symptoms including difficulty concentrating (21.67%), pain/discomfort (15.00%), as well as anxiety/depression (8.33%). Our final model identified significant associations between long COVID and two or more COVID-19 infections (OR = 23.725, 95% CI: 5.098-110.398, < 0.0001), very severe/severe symptoms (OR = 3.177, 95% CI: 1.160-8.702, = 0.0246), over-the-counter medicine (OR = 2.473, 95% CI: 1.035-5.909, = 0.0416), and traditional Chinese medicine (OR = 8.259, 95% CI: 3.016-22.620, < 0.0001). Further, we identified a significant protective effect of very good/good health status (OR = 0.247, 95% CI: 0.112-0.544, = 0.0005). : Long COVID effected a notable proportion of Canadian Chinese for a prolonged period during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings underscore the importance of preexisting health status and reinfection prevention when managing long COVID. Moreover, our work indicates an association between using over-the-counter medicine or traditional Chinese medicine and long COVID experience among Canadian Chinese.
随着新冠疫情的演变,长期新冠成为对公众健康的重大威胁,其特征为感染12周后出现一种或多种持续影响器官系统的症状。已有关于中国民众长期新冠情况的有益研究。然而,这些研究均未考虑加拿大华裔居民感染新冠的经历。我们旨在通过描述疫情期间居住在加拿大的华裔样本的长期新冠经历、患病率及相关因素,填补这一文献空白。本研究采用横断面在线调查问卷,于2022年12月22日至2023年2月15日通过便利抽样程序向加拿大华裔样本发放。询问了受访者的社会人口背景以及与健康、新冠和疫苗相关的特征。使用逻辑LASSO回归进行模型构建,并使用多变量逻辑回归来识别与发生长期新冠相关的因素。在491名符合条件的参与者中,63人(12.83%)报告经历了长期新冠,平均持续时间为5.31个月(95%置信区间:4.06 - 6.57),主要症状包括注意力难以集中(21.67%)、疼痛/不适(15.00%)以及焦虑/抑郁(8.33%)。我们的最终模型确定了长期新冠与两次或更多次新冠感染(比值比 = 23.725,95%置信区间:5.098 - 110.398,P < 0.0001)、非常严重/严重症状(比值比 = 3.177,95%置信区间:1.160 - 8.702,P = 0.0246)、非处方药(比值比 = 2.473,95%置信区间:1.035 - 5.909,P = 0.0416)以及中药(比值比 = 8.259,95%置信区间:3.016 - 22.620,P < 0.0001)之间存在显著关联。此外,我们确定了非常好/良好健康状况具有显著的保护作用(比值比 = 0.247,95%置信区间:0.112 - 0.544,P = 0.0005)。在新冠疫情期间,长期新冠在相当比例的加拿大华裔中持续了较长时间。我们的研究结果强调了在管理长期新冠时,既往健康状况和预防再次感染的重要性。此外,我们的研究表明在加拿大华裔中,使用非处方药或中药与长期新冠经历之间存在关联。