Characterising long COVID: a living systematic review
Melina Michelen, Lakshmi Manoharan, Natalie Elkheir, Hung‐Yuan Cheng, Andrew Dagens, Claire Hastie +4 more
BMJ Global Health
Abstract
Background While it is now apparent clinical sequelae (long COVID) may persist after acute COVID-19, their nature, frequency and aetiology are poorly characterised. This study aims to regularly synthesise evidence on long COVID characteristics, to help inform clinical management, rehabilitation strategies and interventional studies to improve long-term outcomes. Methods A living systematic review. Medline, CINAHL (EBSCO), Global Health (Ovid), WHO Global Research on COVID-19 database, LitCovid and Google Scholar were searched till 17 March 2021. Studies including at least 100 people with confirmed or clinically suspected COVID-19 at 12 weeks or more post onset were included. Risk of bias was assessed using the tool produced by Hoy et al . Results were analysed using descriptive statistics