[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text dp_text_size=”size-4″]Those who recovered from COVID-19 may be at a higher risk of long-term gastrointestinal disorders, according to a new study published in Nature Communications.
These symptoms might range from constipation and diarrhoea to more serious issues including chronic heartburn, pancreatitis, and bile duct irritation.
While this may come as no surprise to those who have lived with COVID for an extended period of time, the study is one of the most detailed and comprehensive to date, based on health records from over 11.6 million people stored in Department of Veterans Affairs archives.
The study was led by Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at the VA Saint Louis Health Care System in Saint Louis. Al-Aly and his colleagues examined the medical records of roughly 154,000 persons diagnosed with COVID-19 between March 2020 and January 2021.
The researchers next compared the incidence of gastrointestinal disorders among COVID survivors a year after infection to rates seen in two control cohorts.
One recent cohort included roughly 5.6 million patients who exhibited no symptoms of COVID-19 infection between March 2020 and January 2021. The other cohort contained 5.8 million people who were tracked for a year prior to the pandemic and served as a control group for COVID-19 infections that were not recorded in the current cohort.
COVID-19 survivors exhibited elevated relative and absolute risks for a number of pre-identified gastrointestinal disorders and symptoms, as defined by the added burden of disease per 1,000 persons, according to the researchers.
COVID-19 survivors had higher rates of constipation, diarrhoea, stomach discomfort, vomiting, and bloating than the control groups over the year following their infection.
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