Treatment courses and determinants in Long COVID and other post-viral symptom complexes (BD-LC-PS)

Project description

Some people who contract COVID-19 continue to suffer from long-term effects, known as long COVID, weeks or even months later. In Germany, long COVID diagnoses were documented in an estimated 1.26 million people in 2022 in outpatient care alone. The need for research in this field is high; due to the variety of symptoms and varying degrees of impairment, there is currently a lack of scientifically reliable findings.

The BD-LC-PS project team has set itself the goal of developing a comprehensive inventory analysis of long COVID diseases. To do this, the researchers are analysing data from the BARMER health insurance company and interviewing 20.000 people diagnosed with long COVID. Based on this data, the research team is determining different degrees of severity and disease progression as well as their frequency in the population within the years 2021 to 2026. In order to identify differences and similarities in the course of a first diagnosis, the research team is comparing the course and influencing factors between long COVID and ME/CFS; the latter is a chronic disease characterised by extreme exhaustion and a variety of other symptoms, for which data from observation periods from 2005 onwards will be used. The researchers are also taking into account the experiences of those affected and of medical professionals involved in the care of long COVID patients. On the basis of their various data collections, a clinically usable instrument for estimating the further course of the disease and a proposal for differentiating long COVID diagnoses according to severity are being developed as an extension of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10). In addition, estimates are being made of the frequency of long COVID in different forms up to the year 2040.

If successful, the results will provide a comprehensive inventory of how frequently long COVID occurs in the population in Germany. They can therefore make a significant contribution to estimating current and future care needs, for example in the event of epidemics. The project is being funded for three years with a total of around 1.5 million euros.

(Description adapted from project website: see link above)