MADRID, 06 (SERVIMEDIA)
Women who follow most aspects of a healthy lifestyle—such as a healthy body weight, not smoking, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, a high-quality diet, and moderate alcohol consumption—have half the risk of contracting persistent covid compared to those that do not meet those factors.
This is clear from a study carried out on 1,981 women by the TH Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University (United States) and published this Monday in the journal ‘JAMA Internal Medicine’.
“With ongoing waves of covid-19, the long duration of covid has created a serious public health burden. Our findings raise the possibility that adopting healthier behaviors may reduce the risk of developing prolonged covid,” says Andrea Roberts, a senior research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health at the TH Chan School of Public Health and lead author of the study.
Persistent covid means having symptoms of covid-19 at least four weeks after initial infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, such as fatigue, fever, and a variety of respiratory, cardiac, neurological, and digestive symptoms.
The researchers analyzed data from more than 32,000 nurses in the United States who reported their lifestyle in 2015 and 2017, and reported that they had been infected with covid-19 between April 2020 and November 2021.
During that time, more than 1,900 contracted covid-19, of which 44% developed persistent covid. Compared to women without any healthy lifestyle factors, those with five or six had a 49% lower risk of long-term covid.
Among the six lifestyle factors, maintaining a healthy body weight and getting enough sleep (seven to nine hours a day) were the most strongly associated with a lower risk of prolonged covid.
The study also shows that women with a healthier lifestyle before infection had a 30% lower risk of contracting symptoms that interfere with their daily lives.
According to the authors, one possible explanation is that an unhealthy lifestyle is associated with increased risk of chronic inflammation and immune dysregulation, which have been linked to increased risk of persistent covid.
