RESUMEN
Objectives: Many patients with long COVID experience at least one vision problem. This study determines the association of long COVID with seeing difficulties. Method(s): We conducted a cross-sectional analysis with the Census Household Pulse Survey data (N = 51,288). We excluded adults who reported contracting COVID within the past four weeks, those with missing data on seeing difficulty when infected with COVID, and long COVID. Long COVID was defined as having symptoms lasting three months or longer that the adults did not have prior to having COVID. Adults self-reporting to a question on seeing with "some difficulty," "a lot of difficulty," or "unable to do" were classified as having "seeing difficulties." We conducted Chi-square tests and logistic regressions with replicate weights. Logistic regressions adjusted for long COVID, sex, age, race and ethnicity, marital status, income, education, food sufficiency, health insurance, remote work, vaccine doses, region, depression, and anxiety. Result(s): During the survey period (November 2 - November 14, 2022), 37.3% reported seeing difficulties, and 14.4% reported long COVID. A higher percentage of adults with long COVID reported seeing difficulties than those without long COVID (47.6% vs. 31.9%). In the fully adjusted logistic regression model, compared to adults with no COVID or without long COVID, those with long COVID had greater odds of seeing difficulties (AOR = 1.50, 95%CI = 1.32, 1.70). We did not observe a statistically significant difference between adults without long COVID and no COVID (AOR = 1.01, 95%CI = 0.93, 1.10 p = 0.7888). Conclusion(s): One in eight adults had long COVID. Adults with long COVID had significantly higher odds of seeing difficulties than those without long COVID. Therefore, a follow-up of patients with long COVID needs to include screening for seeing difficulties. More research is needed on the links between long Covid and vision care.Copyright © 2023