Variant connective tissue as a risk factor for Long COVID: a case-control study

Long COVID (LC) is a major medical challenge, with approximately 20 million sufferers in the US and UK alone. Determining the risk factors for LC is of utmost importance to aid in effective and preventative treatment. We assessed whether variant connective tissue, a known risk factor for several illnesses, is predictive of LC risk. We administered a survey to 1,816 respondents recruited from representative online panels in the US and UK assessing joint hypermobility and LC status. In separate well-controlled binomial logistic regressions, both generalized joint hypermobility (OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.65) and extreme hypermobility (OR 2.12, 95% CI 1.43 to 3.16) were predictive of LC. Our findings suggest that hypermobility influences the odds of developing LC by both increasing the likelihood of developing severe initial symptoms from COVID-19 and increasing the risk that individuals with no or moderate initial symptoms experience LC.