Living with Long COVID in a Southern State: A Comparison of Black and White Residents of North Carolina

TL;DR

This study compares the effects of long COVID on Black and White residents in North Carolina, highlighting differences in recovery, support, and employment impacts.

Contribution

The study provides a cross-sectional analysis of long COVID's socioeconomic and psychosocial effects in a racially diverse North Carolina sample.

Findings

Black participants reported less family and friend support compared to White participants.

More White participants reported not recovering from long COVID than Black participants.

Long COVID impacted employment, with many participants changing tasks or reducing work hours.

Abstract

Long COVID can devastate patients’ 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.

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