Long-Term Outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 Variants and Other Respiratory Infections: Evidence from the Virus Watch Prospective Cohort in England

Abstract Background Given the considerable prevalence of long-term sequelae following SARS-CoV-2 infection, understanding pathogen-related factors that influence long-term outcomes is warranted. We aimed to compare the likelihood of long-term symptoms for SARS-CoV-2 variants, other acute respiratory infections (ARIs) and non-infected individuals.Method Data were from 5,630 individuals participating in Virus Watch, a prospective community cohort study of SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology in England. We used logistic regression to compare the predicted probability of developing long-term symptoms (>2 months duration) during different variant dominance periods according to infection status (SARS-CoV-2, other ARI, or no infection), adjusting for confounding by demographic and clinical factors and vaccination status.Results Predicted probability of long-term sequelae was greater following SARS-CoV-2 infection during the Wild Type (adjusted predicted probability (PP) 0.28, 95% confidence interval (CI) =0.14-0.43), Alpha (PP= 0.28, 95% CI =0.14-0.42), Delta (PP= 0.34, 95% CI=0.25-0.43) and Omicron BA.1 periods (PP= 0.27, 95% CI =0.22-0.33) compared to later Omicron sub-variants (PP range from 0.11, 95% CI 0.08-0.15 to 0.14, 95% CI 0.10-0.18). While differences between SARS-CoV-2 and other ARIs (PP range 0.08, 95% CI 0.04-0.11 to 0.23, 95% CI 0.18-0.28) varied by period, estimates for long-term symptoms following both infection types substantially exceeded those for non-infected participants (PP range 0.01, 95% CI 0.00,0.02 to 0.03, 95% CI 0.01-0.06) across all variant periods.Conclusions Between-variant differences influenced the likelihood of post-infection sequelae for SARS-CoV-2, with lower predicted probabilities for recent Omicron sub-variants similar to those for other contemporaneous ARIs. Both SARS-CoV-2 and other ARIs were associated with long-term symptom development, and further aetiological investigation including between-pathogen comparison is recommended..

Medienart:	Preprint

Erscheinungsjahr:	2023
Erschienen:	2023

Enthalten in:	bioRxiv.org - (2023) vom: 21. Dez. Zur Gesamtaufnahme - year:2023

Sprache:	Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:	Beale, Sarah [VerfasserIn] Yavlinsky, Alexei [VerfasserIn] Fong, Wing Lam Erica [VerfasserIn] Nguyen, Vincent G [VerfasserIn] Kovar, Jana [VerfasserIn] Vos, Theo [VerfasserIn] Hansen, Sarah Wulf [VerfasserIn] Hayward, Andrew C [VerfasserIn] Abubakar, Ibrahim [VerfasserIn] Aldridge, Robert W [VerfasserIn]

Links:	Volltext [kostenfrei]

Themen:	570 Biology

doi:	10.1101/2023.12.18.23300124

funding:
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PPN (Katalog-ID):	XBI04193041X