TY - JOUR
T1 - Risk of long COVID and associated symptoms after acute SARS-COV-2 infection in ethnic minorities
T2 - A nationwide register-linked cohort study in Denmark
AU - Mkoma, George Frederick
AU - Agyemang, Charles
AU - Benfield, Thomas
AU - Rostila, Mikael
AU - Cederström, Agneta
AU - Petersen, J. rgen Holm
AU - Norredam, Marie
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 Mkoma et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2024/2/1
Y1 - 2024/2/1
N2 - Background Ethnic minorities living in high-income countries have been disproportionately affected by Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in terms of infection rates, hospitalisations, and deaths; however, less is known about long COVID in these populations. Our aim was to examine the risk of long COVID and associated symptoms among ethnic minorities. Methods and findings We used nationwide register-based cohort data on individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 aged ≥18 years (n = 2AU, 286, 955): PleasenotethatasperPLOSstyle between January 2020 ;and commasshouldbeusedasseparatorforthousand August 2022 in Denmark. We:H calculated the risk of long COVID diagnosis and long COVID symptoms among ethnic minorities compared with native Danes using multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression and logistic regression, respectively. Among individuals who were first time diagnosed with COVID-19 during the study period, 39, 876 (1.7%) were hospitalised and 2, 247, 079 (98.3%) were nonhospitalised individuals. Of the diagnosed COVID-19 cases, 1, 952, 021 (85.3%) were native Danes and 334, 934 (14.7%) were ethnic minorities. After adjustment for age, sex, civil status, education, family income, and Charlson comorbidity index, ethnic minorities from North Africa (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.41, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.12, 1.79], p = 0.003), Middle East (aHR 1.38, 95% CI [1.24, 1.55], p < 0.001), Eastern Europe (aHR 1.35, 95% CI [1.22, 1.49], p < 0.001), and Asia (aHR 1.23, 95% CI [1.09, 1.40], p = 0.001) had significantly greater risk of long COVID diagnosis than native Danes. In the analysis by largest countries of origin, the greater risks of long COVID diagnosis were found in people of Iraqi origin (aHR 1.56, 95% CI [1.30, 1.88], p < 0.001), people of Turkish origin (aHR 1.42, 95% CI [1.24, 1.63], p < 0.001), and people of Somali origin (aHR 1.42, 95% CI [1.07, 1.91], p = 0.016). A significant factor associated with an increased risk of long COVID diagnosis was COVID-19 hospitalisation. The risk of long COVID diagnosis among ethnic minorities was more pronounced between January 2020 and June 2021. Furthermore, the odds of reporting cardiopulmonary symptoms (including dyspnoea, cough, and chest pain) and anyAU long: PleasenotethatasperPLOSstyle COVID symptoms ; ita were higher among people of North African, Middle Eastern, Eastern European, and Asian origins than among native Danes in both unadjusted and adjusted models. Despite including the nationwide sample of individuals diagnosed with COVID-19, the precision of our estimates on long COVID was limited to the sample of patients with symptoms who had contacted the hospital. Conclusions Belonging to an ethnic minority group was significantly associated with an increased risk of long COVID, indicating the need to better understand long COVID drivers and address care and treatment strategies in these populations.
AB - Background Ethnic minorities living in high-income countries have been disproportionately affected by Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in terms of infection rates, hospitalisations, and deaths; however, less is known about long COVID in these populations. Our aim was to examine the risk of long COVID and associated symptoms among ethnic minorities. Methods and findings We used nationwide register-based cohort data on individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 aged ≥18 years (n = 2AU, 286, 955): PleasenotethatasperPLOSstyle between January 2020 ;and commasshouldbeusedasseparatorforthousand August 2022 in Denmark. We:H calculated the risk of long COVID diagnosis and long COVID symptoms among ethnic minorities compared with native Danes using multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression and logistic regression, respectively. Among individuals who were first time diagnosed with COVID-19 during the study period, 39, 876 (1.7%) were hospitalised and 2, 247, 079 (98.3%) were nonhospitalised individuals. Of the diagnosed COVID-19 cases, 1, 952, 021 (85.3%) were native Danes and 334, 934 (14.7%) were ethnic minorities. After adjustment for age, sex, civil status, education, family income, and Charlson comorbidity index, ethnic minorities from North Africa (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.41, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.12, 1.79], p = 0.003), Middle East (aHR 1.38, 95% CI [1.24, 1.55], p < 0.001), Eastern Europe (aHR 1.35, 95% CI [1.22, 1.49], p < 0.001), and Asia (aHR 1.23, 95% CI [1.09, 1.40], p = 0.001) had significantly greater risk of long COVID diagnosis than native Danes. In the analysis by largest countries of origin, the greater risks of long COVID diagnosis were found in people of Iraqi origin (aHR 1.56, 95% CI [1.30, 1.88], p < 0.001), people of Turkish origin (aHR 1.42, 95% CI [1.24, 1.63], p < 0.001), and people of Somali origin (aHR 1.42, 95% CI [1.07, 1.91], p = 0.016). A significant factor associated with an increased risk of long COVID diagnosis was COVID-19 hospitalisation. The risk of long COVID diagnosis among ethnic minorities was more pronounced between January 2020 and June 2021. Furthermore, the odds of reporting cardiopulmonary symptoms (including dyspnoea, cough, and chest pain) and anyAU long: PleasenotethatasperPLOSstyle COVID symptoms ; ita were higher among people of North African, Middle Eastern, Eastern European, and Asian origins than among native Danes in both unadjusted and adjusted models. Despite including the nationwide sample of individuals diagnosed with COVID-19, the precision of our estimates on long COVID was limited to the sample of patients with symptoms who had contacted the hospital. Conclusions Belonging to an ethnic minority group was significantly associated with an increased risk of long COVID, indicating the need to better understand long COVID drivers and address care and treatment strategies in these populations.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85185763724&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004280
DO - 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004280
M3 - Article
C2 - 38377114
SN - 1549-1277
VL - 21
JO - PLoS medicine
JF - PLoS medicine
IS - 2
M1 - e1004280
ER -