{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,4]],"date-time":"2026-06-04T09:50:16Z","timestamp":1780566616066,"version":"3.54.1"},"reference-count":40,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,12]],"date-time":"2025-03-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1741737600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title><jats:p>Long-term health consequences after mild COVID-19 are not well described. Our aim was to estimate their prevalence and describe the time course of signs and symptoms for a period of up to 24\u202fmonths after SARS-CoV-2 infection.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>We conducted a cohort study matched for age, sex, and test week among individuals who had attended the public COVID-19 test center at Charit\u00e9\u2014Universit\u00e4tsmedizin Berlin, Germany. In early 2022, 576 former COVID-19 patients (&amp;gt;95% non-hospitalized) and 302 uninfected individuals responded to a questionnaire on retrospective monthly symptoms since the test date up to 24\u202fmonths ago.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>Symptoms compatible with long COVID were present in 42.9% (247\/576) of former COVID-19 patients, compared with 21.2% (64\/302) in the uninfected group. In former patients, unadjusted odds ratios (OR) were highest for disturbed taste\/smell (OR 9.1 [95% CI: 4.0\u201321.1]), memory difficulties (OR 5.1 [95% CI: 2.9\u20138.9]), and shortness of breath at rest (OR 4.5 [95% CI: 1.9\u201310.6]). In most former COVID-19 patients, symptoms occurred in one coherent period and resolved after a median of 6.5\u202fmonths, while taste\/smell disturbance and neurological\/cognitive symptoms showed longer times until recovery. Factors associated with long COVID-compatible symptoms included hospitalization, symptomatic COVID-19 infection, low household income and female sex.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Post-infection symptoms in mild COVID-19 patients mostly persist for about half a year, but sometimes longer. Among uninfected individuals who never experienced COVID-19, 21.2% also reported long COVID-compatible symptoms. The current long COVID definition might require revision to prevent misclassification and over-reporting, and to improve diagnosis and prevalence estimates.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2025.1513664","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,12]],"date-time":"2025-03-12T08:01:11Z","timestamp":1741766471000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Post-infection symptoms up to 24\u202fmonths after COVID-19: a matched cohort study in Berlin, Germany"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Anne","family":"Meierkord","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Daniel","family":"Schulze","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maximilian","family":"Gertler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Joachim","family":"Seybold","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Marcus A.","family":"Mall","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tobias","family":"Kurth","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Frank 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