• Francesco Di Gennaro, Alessandra Belati, Ottavia Tulone, Lucia Diella, Fiore BavaroDavideDDepartment of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, Clinic of Infectious Diseases, University of Bari, Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy., Roberta Bonica, Vincenzo Genna, Lee Smith, Mike Trott, Olivier Bruyere, Luigi Mirarchi, Claudia Cusumano, Ligia Juliana Dominguez, Annalisa Saracino, Nicola Veronese, and Mario Barbagallo.
• Department of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, Clinic of Infectious Diseases, University of Bari, Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy.
• Intern Emerg Med. 2023 Aug 1; 18 (5): 157315811573-1581.

AbstractThe long-term consequences of the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) are likely to be frequent but results hitherto are inconclusive. Therefore, we aimed to define the incidence of long-term COVID signs and symptoms as defined by the World Health Organization, using a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. A systematic search in several databases was carried out up to 12 January 2022 for observational studies reporting the cumulative incidence of long COVID signs and symptoms divided according to body systems affected. Data are reported as incidence and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Several sensitivity and meta-regression analyses were performed. Among 11,162 papers initially screened, 196 were included, consisting of 120,970 participants (mean age: 52.3 years; 48.8% females) who were followed-up for a median of six months. The incidence of any long COVID symptomatology was 56.9% (95% CI 52.2-61.6). General long COVID signs and symptoms were the most frequent (incidence of 31%) and digestive issues the least frequent (7.7%). The presence of any neurological, general and cardiovascular long COVID symptomatology was most frequent in females. Higher mean age was associated with higher incidence of psychiatric, respiratory, general, digestive and skin conditions. The incidence of long COVID symptomatology was different according to continent and follow-up length. Long COVID is a common condition in patients who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2, regardless of the severity of the acute illness, indicating the need for more cohort studies on this topic.© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Medicina Interna (SIMI).

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