Abstract
Purpose :
The association between long COVID and vision changes remains unclear. We conducted a cross-sectional study on patients self-reporting long COVID to understand the differences in demographics, socioeconomic characteristics, pre-pandemic comorbidities, new-onset conditions, and long COVID symptoms between individuals who did and did not report vision changes as a long COVID symptom.
Methods :
We used data from 595 participants with long COVID enrolled in the Listen to Immune, Symptom, and Treatment Experiences Now (LISTEN) Study, an online, decentralized, participant-centric, observational study of adults interested in contributing to COVID-related research from May 2022 to October 2023. Vision changes was defined as reporting “loss or decrease in quality of vision/blurry vision” within the question “Please select all following health conditions that you have had as a result of long COVID.” We approximated participants’ composite symptom score based on the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Consortium’s proposed criteria.
Results :
Of the 595 participants, 247 (42%) reported “vision changes” as a long COVID symptom. Overall, the median age was 46 [IQR 38-56]), 73% were female, 86% were Non-Hispanic White, 93% lived in the United States, and 41% were infected before the Delta wave. Before long COVID, the groups had similar comorbidities. Participants with vision changes were different from others in having worse health as measured by the Euro-QoL visual analogue scale (median: 41 points [IQR, 30-60] vs. 50 points [IQR, 35-69], P = <0.001), higher RECOVER scores (median: 20 points [IQR, 15-26] vs. 14 points [IQR, 11-20], P = <0.001), having financial difficulties caused by the pandemic (very much financial difficulties, 20% [95% CI, 15-26] vs. 12% [8.7-16], P < 0.001), having a steady place to live (83% [95% CI, 77-88] vs. 91% [87-93], P = 0.026), and having higher rates of self-reported new-onset mast cell disorders (11.0% [95% CI, 7.5-16] vs. 4.0% [2.3-6.8], P = 0.036) and Post-Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (36% [95% CI, 30-43] vs. 22% [18-27], P = 0.004).
Conclusions :
Among people with long COVID, those with vision changes have worse health status, more severe symptoms, and several associated diagnoses, despite having similar pre-pandemic comorbidities, suggesting it may indicate a severe phenotype of long COVID.
This abstract was presented at the 2024 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Seattle, WA, May 5-9, 2024.