{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T00:52:20Z","timestamp":1760057540393,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":23,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,14]],"date-time":"2025-02-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1739491200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"North Carolina Policy Collaboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill","award":["U54MD012392","UG3MD018398"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U54MD012392","UG3MD018398"]}]},{"name":"North Carolina Central University RCMI Center for Health Disparities Research","award":["U54MD012392","UG3MD018398"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U54MD012392","UG3MD018398"]}]},{"name":"Practice-Based Equity Research Network (PBERN)","award":["U54MD012392","UG3MD018398"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["U54MD012392","UG3MD018398"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Long COVID can devastate patients\u2019 overall quality of life, extending to economic, psychosocial, and mental health and day-to-day activities. Clinical research suggests that long COVID is more severe among Black and African American populations in the United States. This study examines the lived and lasting effects of long COVID among a diverse sample of North Carolina residents over one year by using three self-administered questionnaires completed online using Qualtrics. A cross-sectional descriptive analysis of the baseline results is presented. Our study recruited 258 adults, of which 51.5% had long COVID (but may have recovered), 32.3% had a COVID-19 infection at least once, and 16.3% had never had COVID-19. The socioeconomic status of Black participants was lower than that of White participants; however, the economic impact of long COVID was not worse. Across both groups, 64.4% were employed, 28.8% had to change tasks or work less, and 19.8% stopped working. Fewer White (32.6%) than Black (54.8%) participants always\/often felt supported by family and friends about having long COVID. The majority of White participants (59.1%) reported that they did not recover from long COVID compared to 29.7% of Black participants. The long COVID\/COVID-19 experience affected White and Black participants differently, but both populations continue feel the impacts.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph22020279","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,14]],"date-time":"2025-02-14T04:48:51Z","timestamp":1739508531000},"page":"279","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Living with Long COVID in a Southern State: A Comparison of Black and White Residents of North Carolina"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"given":"William","family":"Pilkington","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Julius L. Chambers Biomedical and Biotechnology Research Institute, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC 27707, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Brooke E.","family":"Bauer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Julius L. Chambers Biomedical and Biotechnology Research Institute, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC 27707, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9752-8930","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Irene A.","family":"Doherty","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Julius L. Chambers Biomedical and Biotechnology Research Institute, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC 27707, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1746","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMsb2408466","article-title":"Long Covid Defined","volume":"391","author":"Ely","year":"2024","journal-title":"N. Engl. J. Med."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Adjaye-Gbewonyo, D., Vahratian, A., Perrine, C.G., and Bertolli, J. (2023). Long COVID in Adults: United States, 2022.","DOI":"10.15620\/cdc:132417"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.2024.11370","article-title":"Evidence Mounts That About 7% of US Adults Have Had Long COVID","volume":"332","author":"Fang","year":"2024","journal-title":"JAMA"},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"National Center for Health Statistics (2024, November 27). U.S. Census Bureau, Household Pulse Survey National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief: Long COVID Household Pulse Survey, Available online: https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/covid19\/pulse\/long-covid.htm."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"109536","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isci.2024.109536","article-title":"Long COVID across SARS-CoV-2 Variants, Lineages, and Sublineages","volume":"27","author":"Padilla","year":"2024","journal-title":"iScience"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"515","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMoa2403211","article-title":"Postacute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in the Pre-Delta, Delta, and Omicron Eras","volume":"391","author":"Xie","year":"2024","journal-title":"N. Engl. J. Med."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e193","DOI":"10.1017\/dmp.2022.104","article-title":"Social Determinants and Indicators of COVID-19 Among Marginalized Communities: A Scientific Review and Call to Action for Pandemic Response and Recovery","volume":"17","author":"Brakefield","year":"2023","journal-title":"Disaster Med. Public Health Prep."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"288","DOI":"10.1007\/s40615-020-00952-y","article-title":"The Relationship Between Social Determinants of Health and Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Mortality","volume":"9","author":"Dalsania","year":"2022","journal-title":"J. Racial Ethn. Health Disparities"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"466","DOI":"10.15585\/mmwr.mm7112e2","article-title":"COVID-19\u2013Associated Hospitalizations Among Adults During SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron Variant Predominance, by Race\/Ethnicity and Vaccination Status\u2014COVID-NET, 14 States, July 2021\u2013January 2022","volume":"71","author":"Taylor","year":"2022","journal-title":"MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, L., Berger, N.A., Kaelber, D.C., Davis, P.B., Volkow, N.D., and Xu, R. (2022). COVID Infection Rates, Clinical Outcomes, and Racial\/Ethnic and Gender Disparities before and after Omicron Emerged in the US 2022. MedRxiv.","DOI":"10.1101\/2022.02.21.22271300"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1127","DOI":"10.1007\/s11606-022-07997-1","article-title":"Racial\/Ethnic Disparities in Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in New York: An EHR-Based Cohort Study from the RECOVER Program","volume":"38","author":"Khullar","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Gen. Intern. Med."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bartsch, S.M., Chin, K.L., Strych, U., John, D.C., Shah, T.D., Bottazzi, M.E., O\u2019Shea, K.J., Robertson, M., Weatherwax, C., and Heneghan, J. (2025). The Current and Future Burden of Long COVID in the United States (U.S.). J. Infect. Dis., jiaf030.","DOI":"10.1093\/infdis\/jiaf030"},{"key":"ref_13","unstructured":"Bach, K. (2022). New Data Shows Long Covid Is Keeping as Many as 4 Million People Out of Work, Brookings Institution. Available online: https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/articles\/new-data-shows-long-covid-is-keeping-as-many-as-4-million-people-out-of-work\/."},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"Karpman, M., Foil, O., Popkin, S.J., McCorkell, L., Waxman, E., and Morriss, S. (2023). Employment and Material Hardship Among Adults with Long COVID in December 2022, Urban Institute. Available online: https:\/\/www.urban.org\/sites\/default\/files\/2023-07\/Employment%20and%20Material%20Hardship%20among%20Adults%20with%20Long%20COVID%20in%20December%202022.pdf."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"101586","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ssmph.2023.101586","article-title":"Association of Long COVID with Housing Insecurity in the United States, 2022\u20132023","volume":"25","author":"Packard","year":"2023","journal-title":"SSM Popul. Health"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Aghaei, A., Zhang, R., Taylor, S., Tam, C.-C., Yang, C.-H., Li, X., and Qiao, S. (2022). Impact of COVID-19 Symptoms on Social Aspects of Life among Female Long Haulers: A Qualitative Study. Research Square.","DOI":"10.21203\/rs.3.rs-1285284\/v1"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e14037","DOI":"10.1111\/hex.14037","article-title":"Barriers to Healthcare Access and Experiences of Stigma: Findings from a Coproduced Long Covid Case-finding Study","volume":"27","author":"Clutterbuck","year":"2024","journal-title":"Health Expect."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"680","DOI":"10.1111\/irv.12980","article-title":"Associations between Persistent Symptoms after Mild COVID-19 and Long-Term Health Status, Quality of Life, and Psychological Distress","volume":"16","author":"Han","year":"2022","journal-title":"Influenza Other Respir. Viruses"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"162","DOI":"10.1111\/jocn.16733","article-title":"\u2018I\u2019m Still Here, I\u2019m Alive and Breathing\u2019: The Experience of Black Americans with Long COVID","volume":"33","author":"Bergmans","year":"2024","journal-title":"J. Clin. Nurs."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Goodwill, J.R., and Ajibewa, T.A. (2024). A Mixed Methods Analysis of Long COVID Symptoms in Black Americans: Examining Physical and Mental Health Outcomes. J. Racial Ethn. Health Disparities, 1\u201311.","DOI":"10.1007\/s40615-024-02170-2"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sprague Martinez, L., Sharma, N., John, J., Battaglia, T.A., Linas, B.P., Clark, C.R., Hudson, L.B., Lobb, R., Betz, G., and Ojala O\u2019Neill, S.O. (2024). Long COVID Impacts: The Voices and Views of Diverse Black and Latinx Residents in Massachusetts. BMC Public Health, 24.","DOI":"10.1186\/s12889-024-19567-7"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"50","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1553-2712.2009.00620.x","article-title":"Validation of the Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale in Pediatric Emergency Department Patients","volume":"17","author":"Garra","year":"2010","journal-title":"Acad. Emerg. Med."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Doherty, I.A., Pilkington, W., Brown, L., Billings, V., Hoffler, U., Paulin, L., Kimbro, K.S., Baker, B., Zhang, T., and Locklear, T. (2021). COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Underserved Communities of North Carolina. PLoS ONE, 16.","DOI":"10.1101\/2021.02.21.21252163"}],"container-title":["International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1660-4601\/22\/2\/279\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,9]],"date-time":"2025-10-09T16:34:14Z","timestamp":1760027654000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1660-4601\/22\/2\/279"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,14]]},"references-count":23,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,2]]}},"alternative-id":["ijerph22020279"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/ijerph22020279","relation":{},"ISSN":["1660-4601"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"1660-4601"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,14]]}}}