New Findings on Long COVID Disability Burden in US Adults

Pooled US Household Pulse Survey data were recently used to estimate the prevalence of disabling Long COVID among adults aged ≥20, defined as current Long COVID with a high level of day-to-day activity reduction.

The analysis drew on 12 monthly online Household Pulse Survey (HPS) cycles spanning September 2022 through August 2023, with 757,580 respondents included after restricting to ages ≥20. “Disabling Long COVID” was operationalized using the HPS long-COVID sequence: respondents reported a prior COVID-19 infection or diagnosis, symptoms lasting ≥3 months that were not present before infection, symptoms currently present, and the highest level of activity limitation (“Yes, a lot”). 10,401 respondents met this definition in the pooled sample.

Within the disabling Long COVID group, about half of respondents meeting the disabling definition were ages 20–49, and this group disproportionately identified as female relative to the overall pooled sample. There were also higher proportions of co-existing disability and higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms in the disabling Long COVID group than in the overall sample, as measured by the HPS disability questions and the brief mental health screeners.