The analysis indicates that women between the ages of 50 and 60 are more likely to develop “long-term Covid”. Older age and the appearance of five or more symptoms in the first week of illness were also associated with an increased risk of lasting health problems.
The study, led by Dr. Claire Steves and Professor Tim Spector of King’s College London, analyzed data from 4,182 users of the COVID Symptom Study app who were constantly logging in to their health and testing positive for the virus.
Overall, women were more likely to have symptoms of Covid that lasted more than a month, compared to men – but only until around age 60, when their level of risk became more similar.
Increased age has also been associated with an increased risk of prolonged Covid, with about 22% of people over 70 having a period of four weeks or more, compared to 10% of people between the ages of 18 and 49.
For women in the 50-60 age group, these two risk factors appear to challenge: They were eight times more likely to experience lasting symptoms of Covid-19 compared to 18 to 30 years old. However, the biggest difference was observed between men and women between the ages of 40 and 50, as the risk of women contracting a long-term Covid virus was twice that of men.
“This is a similar pattern to what you see in autoimmune diseases,” Spector said. “Things like rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease, and lupus are two to three times more common in women even just before menopause, then they become more similar.” His guess is that gender differences in the way the immune system responds to the Coronavirus may be responsible for the difference.
The study, which was published as an introduction to print and has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that exposure to five or more symptoms during the first week of contracting Covid-19 was associated with an increased risk of permanent health problems.
Here, too, there may be differences in the immune response: “There is definitely a group of prolonged Covid patients who have this multi-system immune-like disease, where they develop digestive problems, rashes, nerve problems and brain fog – so everyone said Spector Most likely, the immune system functions differently in these people, which may appear as symptoms in the multiple body systems that are tested from the first week.
Other factors the study linked to an increased risk of permanent Covid-19 symptoms include being overweight or having asthma.
