A psychological model of predictive factors of distress following long COVID

Long COVID, described as "the continuation or development of new symptoms 3 months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection", is estimated to affect at least 10-20 % of all cases of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. Because of its novelty, information regarding the experience of Long COVID is still emerging.

This study examines psychological distress in two long COVID populations, and their experience of fatigue, cognitive failures, experiential avoidance, rumination, and perceived injustice. Participants were recruited via a long COVID hospital clinic and online self-diagnosing samples. Participants completed a battery of scales to measure psychological distress, fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, avoidance and rumination behaviours and the experience of injustice.

It was found that the regression model tested accounted for a significant amount of the variance in psychological distress (R² = 0.675). Cognitive failures, avoidance, rumination, and injustice experiences significantly contributed to the experience of psychological distress and a moderated mediation accounted for the effect of fatigue on psychological distress.

The self-report measures in this study did not include objective measures of symptom severity. Cross-sectional data collected at a single time-point may not capture the dynamic nature of long COVID symptoms.

These findings identify contributing factors to the experience of psychological distress in the long COVID population, providing direction to explore supportive interventions.