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| Wuhan, China |
Many wonder what effects the Covid-19 pandemic will have on Social Security's disability programs. Will there be many "long Covid" disability claims? The Lancet, one of the most important medical journals in the world, has published a study based upon Covid survivors in Wuhan, China, where Covid-19 was first detected. The survivors were followed up at six and twelve months and compared to similar individuals who had not had Covid.
At twelve months 49% of the Covid survivors were reporting symptoms. Shortness of breath was reported in 30% at twelve months. Interestingly, 26% were reporting depression or anxiety. Covid survivors were reporting more problems with mobility as well as pain or discomfort that those who had not had Covid. Of those patients who had been working prior to Covid, 88% had returned to work twelve months out. The study concluded that the survivors had a good physical and functional recovery but their health status was still lower than that of similar individuals who had not suffered from Covid.
This is a helpful post.
ReplyDeleteA couple of additional notes…
ReplyDeleteThe sample was from those who were hospitalized with 75% requiring supplemental oxygen or intubation, not just people who contracted the illness. It was the most severe cases that were followed as a result.
The median age of the study participants was 59 with 75% of the participants being 49+ and 25% being 67+, and of the ~1250 surveyed, more than half (53%) had already retired prior to infection.
The reasons for the 57 people that did not return to their original work are as follows: 32% (18/57) because of decreased physical function, 25% (14/57) because they were unwilling to do the previous work, and 18% (ten of 57) because of unemployment. So most of the people not going back to work wasn’t based on their physical issues.
So while somewhat informative, I wonder what a study of this demographic would yield for any respiratory or infectious disease hospitalization after 6/12 months. I’d also be curious to see it broken down by age to see the impact on younger people versus older people.
@ 11:49. Thank you for injecting some objectivity into this post.
ReplyDelete