A new study from Northwestern Medicine released on July 21 finds that adult women experience more severe neurological symptoms of long COVID than adult men.
The study, published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology, analyzed data from the first consecutive 2,329 patients seen at the Northwestern Medicine Neuro COVID-19 Clinic. Approximately two-thirds of these patients were women. The findings show that women reported neurologic symptoms such as brain fog, dizziness, headache, numbness and tingling, and pain more frequently than men. No neurologic symptoms were found to be more common in men.
Igor Koralnik, MD, chief of neuroinfectious disease and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine, said, “We were surprised to see such a significant difference between female and male patients. Both in the frequency of neurologic long COVID symptoms and in levels of self-reported fatigue, as well as in a cognitive task of attention.”
Women also reported experiencing more non-neurologic symptoms including fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain, dysautonomia and gastrointestinal issues. According to standardized questionnaires used by the researchers, women experienced worse alteration in quality of life due to fatigue compared to men. Additionally, objective cognitive tests showed that women scored lower than men on tasks involving attention.
Koralnik said, “We think that the reason women are more frequently and severely affected by long COVID than men is because long COVID is an autoimmune disease, and women are more prone to autoimmune diseases than men… We next want to understand the underlying causes for the neurologic symptoms of long COVID and identify and validate biological markers that show how active the disease is. We hope our study will alert providers about the importance of timely diagnosis and targeted interventions in female patients…”
Koralnik added, “A Household Pulse Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics estimated that nearly 18 percent of U.S. adults had experienced long COVID and that five percent were experiencing it as of September 2024. It is safe to estimate that long COVID still affects millions of adults in the United States currently.” To date, over 3,300 patients with long COVID from 44 states have been treated at Northwestern’s Neuro COVID-19 Clinic.
Northwestern Medicine aims to provide world-class care through a patient-focused mission encompassing patient care, education and research; recognizes community contributions through humanitarian awards; engages in strategic collaborations for clinical research; operates under parent organization Northwestern Memorial HealthCare; receives national recognition for physician well-being programs; with Howard B. Chrisman serving as president and chief executive officer—according to the official website.
