Abstract
Some patients with COVID-19 develop symptoms after the acute infection, known as ‘Long COVID’. We examined whether or not confirmation of COVID-19 infection status could act as a nocebo, using data from questionnaires distributed to the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children cohort. We examined associations between confirmation of COVID-19 infection status (confirmed by a positive test vs unconfirmed) and reporting of Long COVID symptoms. We explored the roles of sex and anxiety as potential moderators. There was no clear evidence of a strong association between confirmation of COVID-19 infection status and the Long COVID composite score, physical or psychological symptoms or duration of symptoms. There was no clear evidence of moderation by sex or anxiety. We therefore found no evidence of a nocebo effect. Our data suggest that this psychological mechanism does not play a role in the medical symptomatology experienced by patients with Long COVID.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 581-594 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Journal of Health Psychology |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 25 Jan 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 May 2024 |
Data Availability Statement
The analysis code is available from the University of Bristol’s Research Data Repository (http://data.bris.ac.uk/data/), DOI: 10.5523/bris.h9wuux0pi9zb2bigu1eaimiys. The informed consent obtained from ALSPAC participants does not allow the data to be made freely available through any third party maintained public repository. However, data used for this submission can be made available on request to the ALSPAC Executive. The ALSPAC data management plan describes in detail the policy regarding data sharing, which is through a system of managed open access. Full instructions for applying for data access can be found here: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/access/. The ALSPAC study website contains details of all the data that are available (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/researchers/our-data/).Acknowledgements
We are extremely grateful to all the families who took part in this study, the midwives for their help in recruiting them, and the whole ALSPAC team, which includes interviewers, computer and laboratory technicians, clerical workers, research scientists, volunteers, managers, receptionists and nurses. We pre-registered the study protocol with analysis plan on the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/h5juf). Finally, please note that each author’s affiliation is the institution at the time when their primary contribution to the research was made.Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and Wellcome Trust (Grant ref: 217065/Z/19/Z) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. The UK MRC and Wellcome Trust additionally supported the collection of COVID questionnaire data (Grant ref: 102215/2/13/2). This publication is the work of the authors and CMH will serve as a guarantor for the contents of this paper. A comprehensive list of grants funding is available on the ALSPAC website (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/external/documents/grant-acknowledgements.pdf). CMH was an Academic Foundation Doctor in the Severn Foundation School. The MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (MRC IEU) at the University of Bristol (MC_UU_00011/7) provided wider support for this research, by funding MLD.
Keywords
- ALSPAC
- children of the 90s
- coronavirus
- Long COVID
- nocebo
- pandemic
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Applied Psychology