Project #155:
The effect of Long COVID on Quality Adjusted Life Years using OpenPROMPT

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimate that as of 2nd January 2023, 2 million people in the UK were living with Long COVID. Within this cohort, 1.5 million people or 77% of those with Long COVID stated their symptoms adversely affected their day-to-day activities, and 380,000 or 19% reporting their ability to undertake day-to-day activities had been ‘limited a lot’. Given the symptoms are wide-ranging and diverse, the impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) can be significant, however the impact on quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) has not yet been quantified.

This study aims to assess the impact of Long COVID on QALYs, using EuroQoL EQ-5D questionnaire results from a smartphone app which is linked to patients registered with TPP general practices to provide GP and health records. Collection of this questionnaire data across 30-day intervals will provide us with estimates of QALYs lost due to Long COVID. Results will evidence whether there are differences in quality-of-life impacts from Long COVID across demographic groups of age, ethnicities, geographic region, socioeconomic status and underlying health conditions.

Converting these results into QALYs, standardised measurements used in the National Health Service (NHS), can assess the impact of Long COVID to help evaluate how much the effects of Long COVID cost the health service to prioritise future interventions.