Study Links Long COVID to Higher Risk of Heart Disease
NEW DELHI — People suffering from long COVID face a significantly higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, according to a new study by researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet.
The findings, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, show that conditions such as cardiac arrhythmias and coronary artery disease are more common among individuals with long COVID, including those who were not hospitalized during their initial infection.
“We found that cardiac arrhythmias and coronary artery disease were more common among both women and men with long COVID. In women, there was also an increased risk of heart failure and peripheral vascular disease,” said Pia Lindberg of the Department of Medicine, Solna, at Karolinska Institutet.
The study did not find a clear link between long COVID and stroke.
Researchers analyzed data from more than 1.2 million people aged 18 to 65, of whom around 9,000 had been diagnosed with long COVID—about 0.7 percent of the group. Roughly two-thirds of those diagnosed were women.
Over a follow-up period of about four years, individuals with long COVID were significantly more likely to experience cardiovascular events compared with those without the condition.
Among women with long COVID, 18.2 percent developed some form of cardiovascular disease, compared with 8.4 percent of women without the condition. For men, the figures were 20.6 percent versus 11.1 percent.
“Women with long COVID had just over twice the risk of receiving a cardiovascular diagnosis compared with women without long COVID. Men had approximately a third higher risk,” the study found.
Researchers noted that many people with long COVID were never hospitalized during their acute infection, increasing the likelihood that secondary health issues may go undetected.
“Results show that long COVID can be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, even in younger people who were previously healthy. This underlines the need for structured follow-up that takes gender differences into account,” Lindberg said.
The study adds to growing evidence that long COVID is a significant global health concern with lasting impacts beyond the initial infection. (Source: IANS)
