Working days lost to long Covid could be costing the economy billions of pounds every year as patients struggle to cope with symptoms and return to work, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The research, published in BMJ Open and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), examined the impact of long Covid on 4,087 patients who were referred to a long Covid clinic and registered in the Living With Covid Recovery (LWCR) programme between August 2020 and August 2022. As part of their NHS treatment for the condition, the patients used a mobile app to track their symptoms.
Patients were asked to complete questionnaires on the app about how long Covid was affecting them - considering the impact of the condition on their day-to-day activities, levels of fatigue, brain fog, health-related quality of life, relationships and ability to work. The study found that on average, all the individuals who had been referred to long Covid clinics in the UK reported little improvement in their ability to perform day-to-day activities, fatigue, quality of life and ability to work over the first six months after seeking help for their symptoms. Almost three quarters (72%) of the participants who reported loss of working days when they first started to use the app, and remained engaged in the mobile app, continued to report working days lost at six months.
And over a third (36%) of these were unable to work at all. The researchers found that the economic burden of lo.