Prevalence and factors associated with long Covid in older people in the State of Paraná.
Isabela Vanessa Tavares Cordeiro Silva, Luiz Hiroshi Inoue, Franciele Aline Machado Brito and 12 others
PMID 41790803WHAT IT FOUND
18 months after SARS-CoV-2, 224 of 345 older adults reported long Covid.
Current or former smoking and continuous medication use were associated with higher prevalence, while good or excellent sleep was associated with lower prevalence.
Key findings
01Among 345 older adults, 224 (65%) reported long Covid 18 months after SARS-CoV-2.
02In the adjusted model, current or former smoking (2.21 times higher prevalence), continuous medication use (5.24 times higher prevalence), and good or excellent sleep (0.32 times the prevalence) were associated with long Covid.
03Among those with long Covid, memory loss/reduction and tiredness/fatigue were each reported by 123 of 224 (54.9%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that smoking, medication or sleep caused long Covid. Only 345 of 1500 selected people responded, and many did not agree to the telephone interview, so the sample may not represent all older adults after SARS-CoV-2. Symptoms were self-reported by telephone, sometimes by a caregiver, and recall bias or misunderstanding may have affected the reports. People who died and people without a correct landline or mobile number were excluded, so the most frail or isolated older adults may be missing. The final model used stepwise selection, and some treatment variables were dropped because of small numbers or collinearity, so the reported associations are not stable evidence.
Declared interests
Public Brazilian agencies funded the work: CAPES, CNPq, FNDCT, the Ministry of Health/Secretariat of Science, Technology, Innovation and Strategic Inputs in Health, and MCTIC. The paper does not report a commercial conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these associations as proof that smoking, continuous medication or sleep caused long Covid, or that changing them will prevent it. The study was cross-sectional and relied on self-reported symptoms.