ArticlePeerJ2025
The impact of long COVID on quality of life and work performance among healthcare workers in Portugal.
Article in PeerJ, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Investigating the Variables Associated with Having a Functional Limitation Among Adults with Long COVID: A Cross-Sectional Database Study Using the United States Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Biopsychosocial factors associated with health-related quality of life in long COVID: a matched case-control study in primary care.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- A health resort-based intervention reduces insomnia with minimal changes in quality of life in COVID-19 survivors and non-COVID-19 controls.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on Health-Related Quality of Life and Mental Health Among Employees in Health and Social Services-A Longitudinal Study.Infectious disease reports · 2025Article
- Longer Health Resort Therapy Improves Outcomes in Long COVID: A Retrospective Study.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Long COVID in Healthcare Workers from a Pediatric Hospital in Romania: A Cross-Sectional Study of Prevalence, Symptom Burden, and the Role of Vaccination and Reinfection.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- The Impact of Post-COVID-19 Condition on Frontline Healthcare Workers: A Scoping Review.The Canadian journal of infectious diseases & medical microbiology = Journal canadien des maladies infectieuses et de la microbiologie medicale · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a multisystem infectious disease which affected 5.7 million people in Portugal. A subgroup of patients experienced long-term effects from the infection, now referred to as long COVID. Long COVID can considerably reduce the quality of life (QoL) of affected patients. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of long COVID on QoL and work performance among healthcare workers (HCWs) in Portugal. Methods: A cross-sectional correlational survey was performed in 348 HCWs employed either in hospitals, or non-hospital health facilities in Portugal. Participants completed an online survey using Google Forms between May and June 2024, which consisted of multiple-choice questions and took less than 10 min to fill out. Long COVID was considered present if the defined symptoms started at least 3 months after the primary infection of COVID-19, and persisted for at least 2 months. The outcome measures were performance at work and QoL. Performance at work was measured using a seven-point Likert scale and QoL was evaluated using the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). Data was analyzed using SPSS. Results: A total of 277 participants (79.6%) had history of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and 223 participants (64.1%) reported a history of long COVID. Extreme fatigue was reported by 158 participants (57.0%), cognitive dysfunction by 118 participants (42.6%), shortness of breath by 76 participants (27.4%), and persistent cough by 168 participants (60.6%). In the multivariate analysis, long COVID was significantly associated with lower SWLS scores indicating that long COVID negatively impacted QoL. Having two or more chronic diseases showed a trend towards lower performance, and extreme fatigue and cognitive dysfunction showed strong negative associations with performance. Discussion: Based on a national sample of HCWs (348 individuals), a high percentage of participants (64.1%) reported a history of long COVID. These results suggest that HCWs in Portugal have a prevalence of the disease similar to that of the worldwide population. Concerning performance at work, having two or more chronic diseases showed a trend towards lower performance, as well as extreme fatigue and cognitive dysfunction. Interestingly, we found a negative association between being a clinical secretary and SWLS. This might be explained by the specific challenges or stressors faced by clinical secretaries, which could negatively impact their QoL. In conclusion, long COVID was prevalent in the studied sample of HCWs and had a negative impact on their QoL. Extreme fatigue and cognitive dysfunction were strongly negatively associated with performance. This suggests the need for targeted care for HCWs as a group. The results of this study can guide healthcare authorities in addressing important long-term consequences that should be considered in rehabilitation programs for post-COVID-19 recovery.
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