Improved measure for long COVID

Wednesday April 27th 2022

A new assessment tool will be the most thorough developed to date for long COVID, according to researchers from Birmingham.

It was created to report symptoms and can be used to identify effective and safe treatments.

Dr Sarah Hughes of the University of Birmingham, UK, said: “People living with long COVID say they experience a huge range of symptoms but getting these recognised by health care practitioners and policymakers has been a struggle.

"We designed and tested this tool with our patient partners to ensure it is as comprehensive as possible, while also not being burdensome for patients to complete.”

She explains that over 200 symptoms are associated with long COVID, impacting many organs. They can include breathlessness, fatigue, and brain fog. An estimated 100 million people are thought to be affected worldwide.

Details are published today in the *BMJ*. The 'Symptom-Burden Questionnaire for Long COVID, or SBQ-LC, is the result of a 2021 UK study, validated by adults with lived experience.

It comprises 17 scales on which respondents rate their symptoms burden during the past week. The resulting score that can be converted to a zero to score.

"It measures symptoms of long COVID important to individuals with lived experience and may be used to evaluate the impact of interventions and inform best practice in clinical management," the researchers state.

Long COVID patient Karen Matthews said: “I participated in a study quite early on in my condition and the questionnaire used didn’t capture the breadth of what I was feeling.

"Being able to shape something that could record that experience more effectively is worthwhile and I hope it gives researchers and people like me taking part in future studies some valuable evidence.”

Hughes, S. et al. Development and validation of the Symptom Burden Questionnaire for Long COVID: a Rasch analysis. *BMJ* 26 April 2022

Tags: Flu & Viruses | General Health | Respiratory | UK News

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