Defining a long COVID 'expotype' within the P4O2 COVID-19 study

Area of Science:

• Environmental Health
• Public Health
• Long COVID Research

Background:

• Long COVID affects at least 10% of COVID-19 survivors, with fatigue as a primary symptom.
• The exposome's role in long COVID severity is understudied, despite its link to acute COVID-19.
• This study investigates environmental factor phenotypes (expotypes) associated with long COVID severity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify potential exposome phenotypes linked to long COVID severity.
• To explore associations between environmental factors and fatigue, quality of life, and fatigue progression in long COVID patients.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 95 long COVID patients in the Netherlands, assessing symptoms 3-6 months post-infection.
• Evaluated fatigue (using FSS), Quality of Life (QoL), and fatigue over time as severity indicators.
• Included 4 air pollutants and 7 neighborhood characteristics, adjusting for demographic factors in frequentist and Bayesian analyses.

Main Results:

• Population density and light at night were associated with fatigue.
• Increased distance to blue space correlated with decreased odds of optimal Quality of Life.
• No significant associations were found for exposure variables and fatigue over time, nor in penalized regression models.

Conclusions:

• The external exposome may be linked to fatigue severity and Quality of Life in long COVID.
• Associations were not consistently found across all models, indicating a need for further research.
• Findings suggest potential for optimizing living environments through urban planning and prevention strategies.