Millions of Americans, including children, have suffered from long COVID, and some still have symptoms they're fighting with, according to new reports.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics looked at data from the 2022 National Health Interview Survey to create two reports — one for adults and one for children — that describe the percentage of individuals who have ever had or currently have long COVID.
Nearly 7% of adults said they had long COVID, and 3.4% reported they were still battling it. Of the adults who reported having long COVID, data shows it was higher among women than men.
Adults between the ages of 35 and 49 were more likely to suffer from long COVID than younger adults or adults over the age of 49, according to the report.
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The data also revealed that adults living in more rural areas were more likely to have long COVID compared to those living in more metropolitan areas.
According to the report on children, 1.3% of kids had long COVID, with 0.5% still suffering from it at the time of the survey.
Similar to the adult statistics, girls were more likely than boys to have ever had long COVID.
Children between the ages of 12 and 17 were more likely to have long COVID than younger kids, their parents reported.
The CDC defines long COVID as having signs and symptoms that continue to develop after a COVID-19 infection. These effects could last weeks, months or even years.
Back in July, the Biden administration announced it was forming a new office under the Department of Health and Human Services to study the condition of long COVID and help those who have been diagnosed.
