{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,9]],"date-time":"2026-07-09T21:00:15Z","timestamp":1783630815565,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"BMJ","issue":"8","funder":[{"name":"MRC National Core Studies","award":["MC_PC_20030, MC_PC_20059"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["MC_PC_20030, MC_PC_20059"]}]},{"name":"MRC","award":["MR\/V015737\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["MR\/V015737\/1"]}]},{"name":"MRC Data and Connectivity","award":["MC_PC_20058"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["MC_PC_20058"]}]},{"name":"NIHR and MRC via the CONVALESCENCE programme","award":["COV-LT-0009, MC_PC_20051"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["COV-LT-0009, MC_PC_20051"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100010269","name":"The Wellcome Trust","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["222097\/Z\/20\/Z"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["222097\/Z\/20\/Z"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100010269","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["bmj.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["J Epidemiol Community Health"],"accepted":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,27]]},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>We aimed to explore the occurrence and persistence of symptoms, diagnoses and prescribing after COVID-19 among populations from earlier (wave 2) and later (wave 4) in the pandemic.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>With the approval of NHS England, we analysed data from English primary care using The Phoenix Partnership SystmOne through the OpenSAFELY data analytics platform. Individuals with community-diagnosed COVID-19 September 2020\u2013January 2021 (wave 2) were matched to contemporary (2020\u20132021)\u2009and historical (2017\u20132018) comparators. Individuals with community COVID-19 December 2021\u2013March 2022 (wave 4) were matched to contemporary comparators (last follow-up 31 March 2023). Occurrence of each of (1) long-COVID symptoms; (2) primary-care diagnoses and (3) new prescriptions was analysed at any time during 1 year after COVID-19 and at: 4\u201312 weeks, 12\u2009weeks\u20136 months and 6\u2009months\u201312 months after COVID-19 to assess persistence.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>902 885 COVID-19 cases (wave 2) matched to 4\u2009449\u2009265 contemporary (no-COVID-19) comparators. 1 553 160 COVID-19 cases (wave 4) matched to 7\u2009624\u2009770 contemporary comparators. Positive wave 2 associations after COVID-19 were observed for hair loss (OR 1.57, 95%\u2009CI 1.48 to 1.66), mobility impairment (1.41, 1.35 to 1.48), fatigue (1.46, 1.42 to 1.49), cognitive impairment (1.39, 1.34 to 1.44) and loss of taste or smell (1.38, 1.31 to 1.46). At 6\u201312 months reporting persisted for mobility impairment, fatigue and cognitive impairment. There were small increases in new prescriptions for NSAIDs (1.24, 1.23 to 1.26), drugs to treat infections (1.24, 1.23 to 1.25)\u2009and musculoskeletal problems (1.23, 1.22 to 1.25). Wave 4 associations were generally weaker than Wave 2.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Long-COVID symptoms and new prescribing generally reduce over time and are potentially less problematic following less severe illness. Fatigue\/cognitive\/mobility symptoms persist following COVID-19.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1136\/jech-2025-225474","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,26]],"date-time":"2026-03-26T17:20:26Z","timestamp":1774545626000},"page":"624-634","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1136\/crossmarkpolicy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Occurrence and persistence of symptoms, diagnoses and prescriptions after community-diagnosed COVID-19: a matched cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform"],"prefix":"10.1136","volume":"80","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2335-9641","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kevin","family":"Wing","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Glasgow Lab for Health Data Science & AI, Public Health, School of Health & Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK"},{"name":"Department of Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Caroline","family":"Morton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Viyaasan","family":"Mahalingasivam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ruth E","family":"Costello","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Thomas","family":"Cowling","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Health Services Research & Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Liang-Yu","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Non-Communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK"},{"name":"Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Global Health Program, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei City, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peter","family":"Inglesby","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford Nuffield Department of Medicine, Oxford, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alex","family":"Walker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford Nuffield Department of Medicine, Oxford, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"name":"OpenSAFELY Collaborative","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"name":"The LH&W NCS (or CONVALESCENCE) Collaborative","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Sebastian","family":"Bacon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford Nuffield Department of Medicine, Oxford, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amir","family":"Mehrkar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science, Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford Nuffield Department of Medicine, Oxford, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ben","family":"Goldacre","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bennett Institute for 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