Long COVID Symptom (LCS) Baseline Study in South Australia – Allied and Scientific Health Office (ASHO)
Danica Liu1, Nicolas Martin1, Suzanna Parkyn1, Madeleine Della1, Ingrid Lensink1
1SA Health, Adelaide, SA, Australia
Abstract
Background: Prevalence estimates for long COVID (LC) are highly variable (2‐43%), with published data largely unable to describe LC relative to South Australia. The ASHO LC project team initiated a research project to investigate associations between long COVID symptoms (LCS) and service utilisation, compared with recovered individuals. Further, to estimate the proportion of adults with LCS, 5.5 months after initial diagnosis of COVID-19.
Methods: A notifiable disease database was used to select and electronically distribute a survey to adults diagnosed with COVID‐19 between 16‐22 July 2022 (N= 23,563). Individuals with recent reinfection were excluded. Existing data were combined with valid survey responses to provide demographic, medical risk factors and self‐reported service utilisation. Odds ratios were calculated, and confounders adjusted for, using multiple logistic regression, with significance set at 0.05.
Results: Valid responses were received for 21.9% of total invitations issued with 20% reporting long COVID symptoms (LCS) at 5.5 months. The ongoing LCS group reported higher utilisation of General Practice (p-value <0.001) and Emergency Departments (p-value <0.001) with only 0.57% of those (n=6) using dedicated LC clinics. LCS group reported higher utilisation of AHP services compared to the recovered population. 22% of the LCS group accessed allied health input, with 40.6% (p-value <0.001) of those accessing psychology compared to 24.6% of the recovered population.
Conclusions: Result indicate there is a demand for allied health services in the long covid symptom population 5.5 months after original infection. Funding should be targeted to these areas of demand.
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