COVID symptoms linger for young too, study finds
Half of stricken students tracked say symptoms lasted at least 28 days.
A recent study shows young adults are not exempt fromexperiencing prolonged COVID-19 symptoms that those in older age groups have been reporting.
Research compiled using UniversityofDaytonstudents showed those who have been diagnosed with coronavirus but no longer suffer from the acute illness are still feeling prolonged symptoms of the virus including chest pains, breathing difficulty, headaches, loss of smell and taste, and body aches.
“I didn’t think I’d find this, and to be honest, because of the general perception of people who experience these lingering effects of COVID are older or at least middle aged and older, Iwas shocked to see that these young adults predominantly 18-21 are experiencing really serious symptoms like chest pain,” said Julie Walsh-Messinger assistant professor of psychology at the University of Dayton.
For a little over a month, Messinger and a team of other researchers surveyed 43 students who had COVID, 51% of them being “long haulers” or having post-COVID syndrome, with symptoms that continued over 28 days and 30% had symptoms for 50 days or longer. Most long haulers hadmild to moderate cases of the virus andweren’t sick enough to be hospitalized. They are no longer contagious but still live with the sometimes crippling leftover symptoms of the virus.
An additional 58 students without COVID-19 were surveyed to serve as a control for research to further prove that the symptoms were indeed coronavirus related.
“They servedas a control group but helped us look to see which of these prolonged symptoms
of the ones who did have COVID were experiencing to differentiate the ones that are more likely to be COVID related versus just general stress. Stress of being a college student, academic stress, and of course, likewe are all experiencing, stress associated with this pandemic,” she said.
Although the findings could prove to be helpful, it wasn’t the initial focus of the study.
“Theresearchquestionwe were asking was about the long term effects of olfactory loss on mental health and on social function and engagement. As part of that, wewere interested inCOVID symptomsparticularly smell loss associated with COVID, butwhenwe started to look at the data it became clear that we had a large proportion, over half of our sample, got COVID who were experiencing these prolonged symptoms. It was then we decided to look at that more deeply ormore closely,” she said.
Messinger said that the main takeaway from this study is that there is still a lot to learn about the virus and that children and young adults are not immune.
“Young adults are not immune or just getting COVID for a week or two and bouncing back to their normal lives, they are also at risk for these lingering effects, and we still don’t knowwhat those will be five years from now, 10 years from now.”
Those that are long haulers can find support groups through social media and the Pulmonary Wellness Foundation offers free resources and support for people experiencing lingering COVID-19 symptoms aswell as remote and in-person consultations and rehabilitation.