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The lived experience of long COVID: A qualitative study of mental health, quality of life, and coping

The majority of people who contract COVID-19 experience a short period of symptomatic infection. However, symptoms persist for months or years following initial exposure to the virus in some cases. This has been described as long COVID. Little is known about the lived experience of this condition, a...

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Autores principales: Kennelly, Colleen E., Nguyen, Anh T. P., Sheikhan, Natasha Yasmin, Strudwick, Gillian, Ski, Chantal F., Thompson, David R., Bartram, Mary, Soklaridis, Sophie, Rossell, Susan L., Castle, David, Hawke, Lisa D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10575511/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37831706
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0292630
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author Kennelly, Colleen E.
Nguyen, Anh T. P.
Sheikhan, Natasha Yasmin
Strudwick, Gillian
Ski, Chantal F.
Thompson, David R.
Bartram, Mary
Soklaridis, Sophie
Rossell, Susan L.
Castle, David
Hawke, Lisa D.
author_facet Kennelly, Colleen E.
Nguyen, Anh T. P.
Sheikhan, Natasha Yasmin
Strudwick, Gillian
Ski, Chantal F.
Thompson, David R.
Bartram, Mary
Soklaridis, Sophie
Rossell, Susan L.
Castle, David
Hawke, Lisa D.
author_sort Kennelly, Colleen E.
collection PubMed
description The majority of people who contract COVID-19 experience a short period of symptomatic infection. However, symptoms persist for months or years following initial exposure to the virus in some cases. This has been described as long COVID. Little is known about the lived experience of this condition, as it has only recently emerged. This study aimed to explore the experiences of mental health, quality of life, and coping among people living with long COVID. A sample of 47 adults with lived experience participated in web-based focus groups. Separate focus groups were held for 24 individuals with pre-existing mental health conditions and 23 individuals without pre-existing mental health conditions. Data were analyzed using a codebook thematic analysis approach. Five themes were identified as integral to the long COVID experience: The Emotional Landscape of Long COVID, New Limits to Daily Functioning, Grief and Loss of Former Identity, Long COVID-related Stigmatization, and Learning to Cope with Persisting Symptoms. These findings illustrate the immense impact of long COVID on mental health and quality of life. Minimal differences were found between those with and those without pre-existing mental health conditions, as both groups were substantially impacted by the condition. Attention to the perspectives of people with lived experience of long COVID is necessary to inform future directions for research and clinical practice.
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spelling pubmed-105755112023-10-14 The lived experience of long COVID: A qualitative study of mental health, quality of life, and coping Kennelly, Colleen E. Nguyen, Anh T. P. Sheikhan, Natasha Yasmin Strudwick, Gillian Ski, Chantal F. Thompson, David R. Bartram, Mary Soklaridis, Sophie Rossell, Susan L. Castle, David Hawke, Lisa D. PLoS One Research Article The majority of people who contract COVID-19 experience a short period of symptomatic infection. However, symptoms persist for months or years following initial exposure to the virus in some cases. This has been described as long COVID. Little is known about the lived experience of this condition, as it has only recently emerged. This study aimed to explore the experiences of mental health, quality of life, and coping among people living with long COVID. A sample of 47 adults with lived experience participated in web-based focus groups. Separate focus groups were held for 24 individuals with pre-existing mental health conditions and 23 individuals without pre-existing mental health conditions. Data were analyzed using a codebook thematic analysis approach. Five themes were identified as integral to the long COVID experience: The Emotional Landscape of Long COVID, New Limits to Daily Functioning, Grief and Loss of Former Identity, Long COVID-related Stigmatization, and Learning to Cope with Persisting Symptoms. These findings illustrate the immense impact of long COVID on mental health and quality of life. Minimal differences were found between those with and those without pre-existing mental health conditions, as both groups were substantially impacted by the condition. Attention to the perspectives of people with lived experience of long COVID is necessary to inform future directions for research and clinical practice. Public Library of Science 2023-10-13 /pmc/articles/PMC10575511/ /pubmed/37831706 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0292630 Text en © 2023 Kennelly et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Kennelly, Colleen E.
Nguyen, Anh T. P.
Sheikhan, Natasha Yasmin
Strudwick, Gillian
Ski, Chantal F.
Thompson, David R.
Bartram, Mary
Soklaridis, Sophie
Rossell, Susan L.
Castle, David
Hawke, Lisa D.
The lived experience of long COVID: A qualitative study of mental health, quality of life, and coping
title The lived experience of long COVID: A qualitative study of mental health, quality of life, and coping
title_full The lived experience of long COVID: A qualitative study of mental health, quality of life, and coping
title_fullStr The lived experience of long COVID: A qualitative study of mental health, quality of life, and coping
title_full_unstemmed The lived experience of long COVID: A qualitative study of mental health, quality of life, and coping
title_short The lived experience of long COVID: A qualitative study of mental health, quality of life, and coping
title_sort lived experience of long covid: a qualitative study of mental health, quality of life, and coping
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10575511/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37831706
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0292630
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