Risk factors of post-COVID-19 conditions attributed to COVID-19 disease in people aged ≥50 years in Europe and Israel

OBJECTIVES: High age, male sex and pre-existing comorbidities are risk factors for a more severe development of COVID-19, and individuals surviving COVID-19 may experience persistent symptoms afterwards referred to as ‘post-COVID-19 condition’, which represents a range of symptoms after recovering from COVID-19. This study aims at identifying risk factors of post-COVID-19 conditions among people aged ≥50 years. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a cross-sectional study based on data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. METHODS: A multiple logistic regression model was used to investigate age, sex, education, comorbidities, smoking, body mass index, and COVID-19 hospitalisation as risk factors of post-COVID-19 condition. RESULTS: Participants aged ≥70 years (odds ratio [OR] 1.61) with medium (OR 2.38) and lower (OR 2.14) educational levels have a higher risk of post-COVID-19 conditions. In addition, when considering the severity of the COVID-19 disease, those who were hospitalised due to COVID-19 had a 26 times higher risk of post-COVID-19 conditions compared with those who were only tested positive (OR 25.9). CONCLUSIONS: This study supports that health inequalities exist across educational levels with respect to post-COVID-19 conditions, although misclassification may be more common among lower educated participants. The results suggest that policy makers should increase educational interventions towards increasing health literacy.