Association of Long COVID With Vision Difficulties Among Adults in the United States

Abstract

Introduction: Emerging research associates long COVID with the ocular system, including vision difficulties. This study determines the association of long COVID with vision difficulties among U.S. adults. Methods: We used a cross-sectional observational study design of 2022 Census Household Pulse Survey adult data (N = 51,288). COVID status was defined as follows: “long COVID”: those with new symptoms 3 months or longer after COVID infection; “short-term COVID”: those who had COVID but no long COVID symptoms; and “no COVID”: those who have never had COVID. The vision categories were suggested by the Washington Group Short Set on Functioning: no difficulty, some difficulty, a lot of difficulty, and cannot do at all. Rao-Scott Chi-square tests and multinomial logistic regression (adjusted for COVID status, sex, age, race and ethnicity, marital status, poverty, education, food insecurity, health insurance, region, remote work, COVID vaccine, depression, and anxiety), with replicate weights were used. Results: The study included 51,288 respondents. There were 31.3% who had some vision difficulty, and 4.2% had a lot of difficulty or were unable to see. The proportion who reported that they had long COVID was 14.4%. A higher percentage of adults with long COVID reported vision difficulties than those without COVID (47.6% vs. 31.9%). Adults with long COVID had greater odds of reporting a lot of difficulty or cannot do at all (AOR = 1.47, 95%CI = 1.19, 1.81) and some difficulty seeing (AOR = 1.47, 95%CI = 1.27, 1.70) compared to adults without COVID. We did not observe a statistically significant association of short-term COVID with vision difficulties compared to adults without COVID. Discussion: One in seven U.S. adults had long COVID. Adults with long COVID had higher odds of vision difficulties than those without COVID. Further research is needed on long COVID and vision difficulties and subsequent vision care. Implications for Practitioners: A follow-up study of patients with long COVID needs to include screening for vision difficulties.