Integrating patient-reported physical, mental, and social impacts to classify long COVID experiences
Keri B. Vartanian, Daniel Fish, Natalie Kenton, Benjamin Gronowski, Bill Wright, Ari Robicsek
Abstract
Long COVID was originally identified through patient-reported experiences of prolonged symptoms. Many studies have begun to describe long COVID; however, this work typically focuses on medical records, instead of patient experiences, and lacks a comprehensive view of physical, mental, and social impacts. As part of our larger My COVID Diary (MCD) study, we captured patient experiences using a prospective and longitudinal patient-reported outcomes survey (PROMIS-10) and free-text narrative submissions. From this study population, we selected individuals who were still engaged in the MCD study and reporting poor health (PROMIS-10 scores < 3) at 6 months (n = 634). We used their PROMIS-10 and narrative data to describe and classify their long COVID experiences. Using Latent Class Analysis of the PROMIS-10 data, we identified four classifications of long COVID experiences: a few lingering issues (n = 107), significant physical symptoms (n = 113), ongoing mental and cognitive struggles (n = 235), and numerous compounding challenges (n = 179); each classification included a mix of physical, mental, and social health struggles with varying levels of impairment. The classifications were reinforced and further explained by patient narratives. These results provide a new understanding of the varying ways that long COVID presents to help identify and care for patients.