LONG COVID SYMPTOMS AND SLEEP PROBLEMS: POPULATION-BASED STUDY

Apresentação/Introdução Considering that sleep directly influences the immune system and is related to the development of various diseases, it is questioned whether sleep problems could be associated with the onset or persistence of long covid. Investigating this possible relationship thus becomes a relevant public health issue. Objetivos To investigate the association between symptoms of long covid and sleep problems in a population from southern Brazil. Metodologia This is a cross-sectional study with data from the SULcovid-19 survey, developed in the municipality of Rio Grande/RS, Brazil. The outcome "long covid" was investigated through the presence of 18 symptoms, and the exposure variable used was "sleep problems". Poisson regression with robust adjustment of variance was used to estimate crude and adjusted prevalence ratios of the outcome-exposure relationship. The odds‘ ratio is calculated, through multinomial regression, of the relationship between the number of symptoms of long covid and sleep problems. The analyses were adjusted for sex, age, marital status, income, body mass index, smoking, morbidities, and hospital admission. Resultados A total of 2,919 adults and older adults were interviewed. The occurrence of long covid was 48.3% (95%CI 46.5-50.1) and sleep problems were reported by 41.2% of the sample (95%CI 39.4-43.0). Individuals with sleep problems were more likely to have altered sensitivity (PR= 3.27; 95%CI 1.96-5.45); nasal congestion (PR= 2.75; 95%CI 1.53-4.94); musculoskeletal symptoms (PR=1.75; 95%CI 1.48-2.06), respiratory (PR=1.58; 95%CI 1.24-2.01) and at least one symptom of long covid (PR=1.27; 95%CI 1.15-1.39). Conclusões/Considerações About half of the population analyzed had long covid and four out of ten reported having sleep problems, in addition to the individuals with sleep problems, evaluated in this study, tended to have a greater number of symptoms, compared to those who claimed to sleep well.