• Last updated: Thu, Jun 1, 2023Status: Ongoing
• Adam Altmejd, Torsten Persson, Olof Östergren, Anna Mia Ekström, Oskar Nordström Skans, Maxim Kan, and Nicola Orsini

Individual and aggregate consequences of post-covid conditions

The purpose of the project is to describe how long-COVID, or post-COVID-19, conditions (PCC), have affected Swedish society. The project will start by describing (i) those who suffer from PCC, (ii) whether the burden of disease is unequally distributed across social groups, and (iii) some of the implications for those diagnosed. Next, we will evaluate if vaccines provide some protection from PCC. We will also estimate the labor-market effects of PCC. One key aim is to understand the losses of individual labor supply, as well as of aggregate output. We will therefore study to what extent PCC has added to the burden of long-term sick leave, (and thus the total amount of absenteeism). To do so, we will analyze how much PCC has afflicted groups that tended to have few sick days before the onset of COVID-19 vs. groups that tended to have many sick days, for other types of sickness, before the pandemic. For the latter groups, it will be interesting to identify whether these types of sickness—like (some forms of) PCC—are hard to diagnose and treat. Additionally, we would study whether post-Covid diagnosis is at least as common in patients with mild or undiagnosed Covid-19 as in those hospitalized with severe Covid-19. Also, we would examine whether patients with post-Covid diagnosis, especially after a mild infection, have similar risk factors to those with fatigue/depression and to some extent addiction problems.