The number of working days lost to long Covid could be costing the UK economy billions of pounds every year as patients struggle to cope with symptoms and return to work, research has found.
The study researchers from University College London (UCL) 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.
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The research, published in BMJ Open and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), 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 long Covid is primarily driven by productivity losses, which averaged £931 per patient per month over the six-month period. This was calculated using the national average hourly pay (£13.57 per hour) and the average working hours per week (33.9 hours).
Senior author, professor Manuel Gomes of UCL Epidemiology & Health Care, said: “The costs associated with working days lost could potentially cost the economy up to £20bn (£931 x two million people x 12 months) a year.
“Obviously patients in our sample are likely to be more symptomatic and/or impaired than the average long Covid patient, but even if only 10% of all long Covid patients in the UK were significantly impaired, that would equate to £2bn per year.”
Further findings from the study showed that around half (46.3%) of long Covid patients still had severe functional impairment at six months, emphasising ongoing challenges in long Covid recovery.
Separately, and more positively, UCL researchers have also found that most young people who were confirmed to have long Covid three months after a positive PCR test had recovered within 24 months.
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