A psychological model of predictive factors of distress following long COVID

Background: Long COVID, described as "the continuation or development of new symptoms 3 months after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection", is estimated to affect at least 10-20 % of all cases of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. Because of its novelty, information regarding the experience of Long COVID is still emerging.

Methods: This study examines psychological distress in two long COVID populations, and their experience of fatigue, cognitive failures, experiential avoidance, rumination, and perceived injustice. Participants were recruited via a long COVID hospital clinic and online self-diagnosing samples. Participants completed a battery of scales to measure psychological distress, fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, avoidance and rumination behaviours and the experience of injustice.

Results: It was found that the regression model tested accounted for a significant amount of the variance in psychological distress (R² = 0.675). Cognitive failures, avoidance, rumination, and injustice experiences significantly contributed to the experience of psychological distress and a moderated mediation accounted for the effect of fatigue on psychological distress.

Limitations: The self-report measures in this study did not include objective measures of symptom severity. Cross-sectional data collected at a single time-point may not capture the dynamic nature of long COVID symptoms.

Conclusions: These findings identify contributing factors to the experience of psychological distress in the long COVID population, providing direction to explore supportive interventions.