OBJECTIVE: Prior evidence has suggested the multisystem symptomatic manifestations of post-acute COVID-19 condition (PCC). Here we conducted a network cluster analysis of 24 World Health Organization-proposed symptoms to identify potential latent subclasses of PCC. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: Individuals with a positive test of or diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 after September 2020 and with at least 1 symptom within ≥90 to 365 days following infection were included. Subanalyses were conducted among people with ≥3 different symptoms. Summary characteristics were provided for each cluster. All analyses were conducted separately in 9 databases from 7 countries, including data from primary care, hospitals, national health claims and national health registries, allowing to compare clusters across the different healthcare settings. RESULTS: This study included 787,078 persons with PCC. Single-symptom clusters were common across all databases, particularly for joint pain, anxiety, depression and allergy. Complex clusters included anxiety-depression and abdominal-gastrointestinal symptoms. CONCLUSION: Substantial heterogeneity within and between PCC clusters was seen across health-care settings. Current definitions of PCC should be critically reviewed to reflect this variety in clinical presentation.
10.1016/j.jclinepi.2025.111867
Journal article
2025-09-01T00:00:00+00:00
185
Clustering, Latent class analysis, Long COVID, Post-acute COVID-19 condition, Real-world data, Humans, COVID-19, Male, Female, Middle Aged, Cluster Analysis, Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome, Databases, Factual, Latent Class Analysis, Adult, SARS-CoV-2, Aged