Study objective

Most long coronavirus disease (long COVID) studies rely on traditional surveillance methods that miss underserved populations who use emergency departments (EDs) as their primary health care source. In medically underserved ED populations, we sought to determine (1) whether there are gaps in awareness and self-declared understanding about long COVID illness, and (2) the prevalence, impact on school/work attendance, and receipt of care for long COVID symptoms.

Methods

This study was a cross-sectional, convenience sample survey study of adult patients at 11 geographically representative US EDs from December 2022 to October 2023. Awareness and self-declared understanding about long COVID illness were measured. Prevalence, impact on school/work attendance, and receipt of care for long COVID symptoms were also assessed.

Results

Of 1,618 eligible patients, 1455 (89.9%) agreed to participate, including 33.4% African Americans and 30.9% Latino/a. Of the patients, 17.1% lacked primary care. In total, 33.2% had persistent COVID-19 symptoms lasting >1 month, and 20.3% had symptoms >3 months. Moreover, 49.8% with long COVID symptoms missed work/school because of symptoms; 30.3% of all participants and 33.5% of participants who had long COVID symptoms had prior awareness and self-declared understanding of long COVID. Characteristics associated with poor understanding of long COVID were African American race (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 3.68, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.66 to 5.09) and Latino/a ethnicity (aOR 3.16, 95% CI 2.15 to 4.64). Participants lacking primary care were less likely to have received long COVID care (24.6% versus 51.2%; difference 26.6%; 95% CI 13.7% to 36.9%).

Conclusions

Despite high prevalence and impact on school/work attendance of long COVID symptoms, most of this ED population had limited awareness and self-declared understanding of long COVID, and many had not received care. EDs should consider the development of protocols for diagnosis, education, and treatment of long COVID illness.