Correlates of long-COVID-19: the role of demographics, chronic illness, and psychiatric diagnosis in an urban sample

ABSTRACT

Long-COVID-19 symptoms are an emerging public health issue. This study sought to investigate demographics, chronic illness, and probable psychiatric diagnoses as correlates for long-COVID-19 in an urban adult sample. Self-report Qualtrics surveys were sent to students across City University of New York (CUNY) campuses in New York City in Winter 2021–2022. Binary logistic regressions were used to assess the relation of a range of factors with endorsement of long-COVID-19. Results demonstrated that Latinx participants endorsed higher odds of long-COVID-19, as compared to non-Latinx white participants. Participants who endorsed having a prior chronic illness and those who met the cut-off for probable psychiatric diagnoses all endorsed higher odds of long-COVID-19. Long-COVID-19 may be more likely among specific subpopulations and among persons with other ongoing physical and mental illness.

KEYWORDS:

• Long-COVID
• pandemic
• chronic illness
• psychiatric diagnoses

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Conceptualization

S. Rudenstine, T. Schulder, S. Galea, and C. Ettman; Methodology: S. Rudenstine, T. Schulder; Formal Analysis: T. Schulder; Investigation: S. Rudenstine, T. Schulder; Writing – Original Draft and Preparation: S. Rudenstine, T. Schulder; Writing – Review and Editing: C. Ettman and S. Galea.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.