COVID-19 among young adults in Sweden: self-reported long-term symptoms and associated factors

AIMS: The main aim of the study was to describe self-reported symptoms of COVID-19 and examine if long-term symptoms are associated with lifestyle factors or common chronic diseases among Swedish young adults. A secondary aim was to compare the prevalence of smoking and snuff use before and during t...

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Autores principales: Ekström, Sandra, Andersson, Niklas, Lövquist, Alexandra, Lauber, André, Georgelis, Antonios, Kull, Inger, Melén, Erik, Bergström, Anna
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8808012/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34148461
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14034948211025425
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author Ekström, Sandra
Andersson, Niklas
Lövquist, Alexandra
Lauber, André
Georgelis, Antonios
Kull, Inger
Melén, Erik
Bergström, Anna
author_facet Ekström, Sandra
Andersson, Niklas
Lövquist, Alexandra
Lauber, André
Georgelis, Antonios
Kull, Inger
Melén, Erik
Bergström, Anna
author_sort Ekström, Sandra
collection PubMed
description AIMS: The main aim of the study was to describe self-reported symptoms of COVID-19 and examine if long-term symptoms are associated with lifestyle factors or common chronic diseases among Swedish young adults. A secondary aim was to compare the prevalence of smoking and snuff use before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The study population includes 1644 participants aged 23–26 years from the Swedish population-based birth cohort BAMSE. From August to November 2020, the participants answered a web questionnaire on COVID-19 symptoms, lifestyle and health. Information on tobacco use was compared against the previous study follow-up in 2016–2019. RESULTS: The prevalence of suspected COVID-19 symptoms was 45.3% (n=742), and 80 of these (10.8%) reported long-term symptoms (⩾4 weeks). There was no significant difference in sociodemographic or lifestyle factors in relation to the duration of suspected COVID-19 symptoms. Rhinitis, migraine and lower self-rated health before the pandemic was more common among participants with long-term symptoms. In addition, there was a tendency for higher prevalences of asthma, chronic bronchitis and depression in this group. The prevalence of smoking decreased from 18.9% before the pandemic to 14.7% during the pandemic, while snuff use increased from 12.7% to 22.4% (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Almost half of Swedish young adults have had symptoms of suspected COVID-19 from February up to August 2020. Among these, one out of 10 have had long-term symptoms for at least 4 weeks. Long-term symptoms of suspected COVID-19 were associated with several common chronic conditions. Smoking may have decreased during the pandemic, while snuff use may have increased.
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spelling pubmed-88080122022-02-03 COVID-19 among young adults in Sweden: self-reported long-term symptoms and associated factors Ekström, Sandra Andersson, Niklas Lövquist, Alexandra Lauber, André Georgelis, Antonios Kull, Inger Melén, Erik Bergström, Anna Scand J Public Health Original Articles AIMS: The main aim of the study was to describe self-reported symptoms of COVID-19 and examine if long-term symptoms are associated with lifestyle factors or common chronic diseases among Swedish young adults. A secondary aim was to compare the prevalence of smoking and snuff use before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The study population includes 1644 participants aged 23–26 years from the Swedish population-based birth cohort BAMSE. From August to November 2020, the participants answered a web questionnaire on COVID-19 symptoms, lifestyle and health. Information on tobacco use was compared against the previous study follow-up in 2016–2019. RESULTS: The prevalence of suspected COVID-19 symptoms was 45.3% (n=742), and 80 of these (10.8%) reported long-term symptoms (⩾4 weeks). There was no significant difference in sociodemographic or lifestyle factors in relation to the duration of suspected COVID-19 symptoms. Rhinitis, migraine and lower self-rated health before the pandemic was more common among participants with long-term symptoms. In addition, there was a tendency for higher prevalences of asthma, chronic bronchitis and depression in this group. The prevalence of smoking decreased from 18.9% before the pandemic to 14.7% during the pandemic, while snuff use increased from 12.7% to 22.4% (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Almost half of Swedish young adults have had symptoms of suspected COVID-19 from February up to August 2020. Among these, one out of 10 have had long-term symptoms for at least 4 weeks. Long-term symptoms of suspected COVID-19 were associated with several common chronic conditions. Smoking may have decreased during the pandemic, while snuff use may have increased. SAGE Publications 2021-06-19 2022-02 /pmc/articles/PMC8808012/ /pubmed/34148461 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14034948211025425 Text en © Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Articles
Ekström, Sandra
Andersson, Niklas
Lövquist, Alexandra
Lauber, André
Georgelis, Antonios
Kull, Inger
Melén, Erik
Bergström, Anna
COVID-19 among young adults in Sweden: self-reported long-term symptoms and associated factors
title COVID-19 among young adults in Sweden: self-reported long-term symptoms and associated factors
title_full COVID-19 among young adults in Sweden: self-reported long-term symptoms and associated factors
title_fullStr COVID-19 among young adults in Sweden: self-reported long-term symptoms and associated factors
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 among young adults in Sweden: self-reported long-term symptoms and associated factors
title_short COVID-19 among young adults in Sweden: self-reported long-term symptoms and associated factors
title_sort covid-19 among young adults in sweden: self-reported long-term symptoms and associated factors
topic Original Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8808012/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34148461
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14034948211025425
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