COVID patients 4 times more likely to develop chronic fatigue: CDC research

COVID-19 patients are at least four times more likely to develop chronic fatigue than those who have not been infected, according to a new study published by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The researchers used electronic medical records from the University of Washington for their analysis and followed more than 4,500 adults for about 11 months after COVID-19 infection between February 2020 and February 2021. The researchers then compared the results with more than 9,000 adults who did not have a COVID-19 infection.

“Increased awareness of fatigue and other [post COVID conditions] is warranted to enable patients to seek early care when needed. Further research is also warranted to investigate the causes and preventive measures for the severe outcomes associated with post-COVID fatigue,” according to the study.

The researchers found that about 9 percent of COVID-19 patients developed fatigue after infection, and that such patients were 1.68 times more likely to develop fatigue and 4.32 times more likely to develop chronic fatigue, a subset of fatigue, than those who had not had the virus.

Women and older adults were more likely to develop fatigue and chronic fatigue, according to the research. Women were 39 percent more likely to receive a fatigue diagnosis than men when adjusting for age and comorbidities. Those in “advancing age groups,” meanwhile, were more likely to receive a fatigue diagnosis than those 18 to 29 years old when adjustments were not made for sex and comorbidities, but when adjusting for those factors that elevated likelihood was found to be “no longer statistically significant.”

COVID-19 patients who developed fatigue “had far worse clinical outcomes,” according to the study. Among those who developed fatigue, 25 percent were hospitalized during the post-acute period, while 13 percent of those who did not develop it were hospitalized.

Those who developed fatigue also had a slightly higher elevated risk of dying, according to the study; 5 percent of those who developed fatigue died, while 2.3 percent of those who didn’t develop it did so, according to the research.