UK LLC - COVID-19: Comparing the burden of long COVID in the community as measured by self-report and electronic health records: a study by the CONVALESCENCE consortium

Summary

[The NIHR BioResource contributes to a major national study of the long-term impacts of COVID-19, through the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration.]

There is considerable uncertainty about the extent to which individuals with a history of COVID-19 go on to develop long COVID. In particular, separate findings from surveys of individuals in the community self-reporting long COVID and studies of primary care records have suggested that the proportion of individuals with a history of COVID-19 receiving a diagnosis of long COVID from general practitioners may be of an order of magnitude lower than the proportions of individuals reporting persistent symptoms themselves. In this study, we will compare the self-reporting of long COVID by individuals with their primary care records of long COVID, to further evaluate the extent of long COVID in the community being recognised by primary care practitioners.