Cited by 4,561Long-Term Effects of COVID-19COVID-19 Clinical Research StudiesCOVID-19 epidemiological studies

Persistent Symptoms in Patients After Acute COVID-19

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Carfì, Angelo, Bernabei, Roberto, Landi, Francesco, for the Gemelli Against COVID-19 Post-Acute Care Study Group·2020·JAMA

Abstract

case rate of 587 per 100 000.The crude COVID-19 death rate in prisons was 39 deaths per 100 000 prisoners, which was higher than the US population rate of 29 deaths per 100 000 (Table).However, individuals aged 65 years or older comprised a smaller share of the prison population than of the US population (3% vs 16%, respectively) and accounted for 81% of COVID-19 deaths in the US population.The Table provides a standardized calculation showing that the adjusted death rate in the prison population was 3.0 times higher than would be expected if the age and sex distributions of the US and prison populations were equal.The Figure displays the daily trends in cumulative, confirmed cases of COVID-19 in state and federal prisons and the US population from March 31, 2020, to June 6, 2020.The COVID-19 case rate was initially lower in prisons but surpassed the US population on April 14, 2020.The mean daily case growth rate was 8.3% per day in prisons and 3.4% per day in the US population.Discussion | COVID-19 case rates have been substantially higher and escalating much more rapidly in prisons than in the US population.One limitation of the study is that it relied on officially reported data, which may be subject to inaccuracies and reporting delays, but are the only data available.Comprehensive data on testing rates were not available, and testing rates in both prisons and the overall population were uneven, with many facilities testing no prisoners or only symptomatic persons.2,5 Mass testing in select prisons revealed wide COVID-19 outbreaks, with infection rates exceeding 65% in several facilities. 2 Reported case rates for prisoners therefore likely understated the true prevalence of COVID-19 in prisons.A second limitation is that departments of corrections generally did not report demographic data on decedents, and therefore we could not adjust death rates to account for race/ ethnicity and comorbidity.This study focused on prisons but did not include jails or other detention facilities where there have been notable COVID-19 outbreaks.Although some facilities did engage in efforts to control outbreaks, the findings suggest that overall, COVID-19 in US prisons is unlikely to be contained without implementation of more effective infection control.

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  • Long COVID negatively impacts quality of life and patient work ability and social relationships.

    “Nevertheless, what emerges from preliminary data is the negative impact of long COVID on quality of life and its effects on patient work ability and social relationships [1,4,19].”
  • The proportion of patients with long COVID in this study matched figures from earlier reports.

    “The high incidence of long COVID within our cohort was similar to that previously reported: more than half of patients reported symptoms lasting more than 2 months after symptom onset [4,5,16,18,19].”

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Authors
Carfì, A., Bernabei, R., Landi, F., & for the Gemelli Against COVID-19 Post-Acute Care Study Group
Affiliations
Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic (IT)
Corresponding author
Carfì, Angelo
Venue
JAMA
Published
2020-08-11
Volume
324
Issue
6
Pages
603
ISSN
  • 0002-9955 (ISSN-L)
  • 0098-7484
OpenAlex
W3041493976
Cited by
4,561
References
7
Citations by year
2026: 139 · 2025: 292 · 2024: 495 · 2023: 827 · 2022: 1183 · 2021: 1373 · 2020: 245 · 2018: 2
FWCI
393.49
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • JAMA (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
University of Pennsylvania
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Neurology › Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
  • Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
Keywords
COVID-19 pandemic, long COVID, post-acute symptoms, prisoners, prison population, COVID-19 mortality, COVID-19 case rates, infection control, jails, detention centers, COVID-19 outbreak
MeSH terms
Betacoronavirus, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Adult, Aged, Chest Pain, Dyspnea, Fatigue, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Italy, Male, Middle Aged, Pneumonia, Viral, Coronavirus Infections, Arthralgia, Pandemics, Symptom Assessment

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