Insights on a number of health conditions potentially triggered by or exacerbated by COVID-19 continue to surface in the literature. Researchers have found a higher risk of digestive disorders in COVID-19 survivors when comparing them to a contemporary group (who lived at the same time as the COVID-19 group), and a historical group (whose data was sourced from a time period prior to October 2019). Analysis of the BMC Medicine study presented in CIDRAP show the COVID-19 survivors had a 41% elevated risk for gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD); 38% elevated risk for functional gastrointestinal (GI) disorders; 36% for pancreatic disease; 35% for severe liver disease; 27% for nonalcoholic liver disease; 23% for peptic ulcers; and 21% for gallbladder disease when compared to the contemporary group. The results were consistent when the COVID-19 group was compared to the historical group in this retrospective study of hundreds of thousands of patients.
COVID is rough on the gut: The authors note: “In addition, the risks of GI dysfunction and GERD did not decrease after 1-year follow-up, revealing the long-term effect of COVID-19 and the risks of digestive disorders.”