If you have stress, worry, or depression… The risk of Corona aftermath is 46%↑

According to a study, the risk of suffering from the followingeffects of corona infection (long covid) can increase by 46% if you experience psychological pain, such as stress, on a regular basis. [사진=게티지뱅크]

Those who experienced various psychological pains such as depression, anxiety, worry, stress, and loneliness before infection with COVID-19 were found to have a much higher risk of contracting the followingeffects of corona infection (long covid).

This is the result of a study conducted by a research team at Harvard University’s School of Public Health in the United States, which surveyed more than 54,000 people. The research team enrolled participants in April 2020 and conducted surveys and follow-up observations. More than 3,000 of these participants were infected with the virus in the following year. The research team asked participants regarding the followingeffects of corona infection and how long the symptoms appeared. The research team compared those who developed corona sequelae with those who did not.

As a result of the study, those who experienced various psychological pains such as depression, anxiety, worry, stress, and loneliness before being infected with the corona had a 32-46% higher risk of contracting the followingeffects than those who did not. In addition, those who suffered from these kinds of psychological pain had a 15-51% higher risk of ruining their daily life due to the followingmath of the corona virus than those who did not. However, smoking, asthma, other health behaviors and physical health conditions were not found to be associated with the risk of developing coronavirus sequelae.

“I was surprised to find that psychological distress before corona infection is very closely related to an increased risk of corona sequelae,” said Xian Wang, a nutritionist at Harvard University’s School of Public Health, the study’s lead author. In particular, it was surprising that psychological pain was much more closely related to the onset of the followingeffects of the corona virus than physical health risk factors such as obesity, asthma, and high blood pressure.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), regarding 20% of adults in the U.S. who contract the coronavirus will suffer from the followingeffects of the coronavirus. As sequelae, fatigue, brain fog, or respiratory, cardiac, neurological, or digestive symptoms appear more than 4 weeks following coronavirus infection. “This is the first prospective study to show that social and psychological factors are risk factors for the sequelae of the coronavirus and the resulting impairments in daily living,” said Andrea Roberts, a senior researcher in environmental health sciences at Harvard University’s School of Public Health and lead author of the study.

The results of this study (Associations of Depression, Anxiety, Worry, Perceived Stress, and Loneliness Prior to Infection With Risk of Post–COVID-19 Conditions) were published online in JAMA Psychiatry and published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It was introduced by ‘Eureka Alert’, a portal operated by it.

By Kim Young-seop, staff reporter [email protected]

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