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Researchers analyzed electronic health records data collected from the University of Washington that included three hospitals and over 300 primary care and specialty clinics providing healthcare services across the state, totaling 4,589 patients.
Patients, who consisted of adults over age 18 having either a positive test result for COVID or a clinical diagnosis of COVID from February 2020 to February 2021, were then followed for at least 11 months and their health data was compared to that of around 9,000 non-COVID patients with both groups having an average age of around 49.
About nine percent of COVID patients developed fatigue after infection, and they were 4.32 times more like to develop chronic fatigue and 1.7 times more likely to develop fatigue in general.
Women were 39 percent more likely to have a fatigue diagnosis than men were after adjusting for age group and comorbidities, the study found.
"We noted no strong evidence of a racial or ethnic difference in incidence of fatigue, except a slightly lower incidence among Black patients," the study stated. "Persons with more comorbidities experienced higher incidence rates than did persons without comorbidities.
"However, even among younger persons (18 to 29 years of age), those without comorbidities, and those who were not hospitalized for acute COVID-19, the incidence of fatigue was only slightly reduced."
Researchers noted that "the observed association between COVID-19 and the significant increase in the incidence of fatigue and chronic fatigue reinforces the need for public health actions to prevent SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) infections."
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