Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have investigated how residual health problems after a Covid infection are related to secondary cardiovascular diseases.
The study included 1.2 million people between the ages of 18 and 65, of whom 9,000 had been diagnosed with post-COVID. Two-thirds of them were women.
During the four-year follow-up, 18.2 percent of women and 20.6 percent of men with post-COVID suffered some form of cardiovascular event. Among those without post-COVID, the corresponding figures were 8.4 percent and 11.1 percent, respectively.
"We saw that heart rhythm disorders and coronary artery disease were more common among both women and men with post-COVID. In women, an increased risk of heart failure and peripheral vascular disease was also seen," says Pia Lindberg, a nurse and doctoral student at Karolinska Institutet, in a press release.
The differences remained even after the researchers adjusted for age, socioeconomic status and other risk factors.
At the same time, no clear connection was found between post-COVID and stroke.
