Women Had 3 Times the Odds of Persistent Long COVID Compared With Men, Study Finds

A study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine on September 21, 2026, found that women healthcare workers had about three times the adjusted odds of still having long-COVID symptoms months after infection compared with their male colleagues.

The study was led by Eric Kontowicz of University of Iowa Health Care, working with a multicenter team that included researchers from the University of Iowa, Jackson Memorial Hospital, and the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, along with the CDC's COVID-19 Response Team.

The team followed 1,496 healthcare workers across 17 US states, all of whom had tested positive for COVID-19 between August 2022 and May 2024, checking in with them twice: once at three months after infection, and again at six months.

A workforce still recovering

Of the workers who completed both check ins, 169, or 11.3%, were still reporting at least one moderate or severe symptom at both the three month and six month mark.

Fatigue was the most common complaint.

Others included breathing trouble, dizziness, joint pain, loss of taste or smell, abdominal pain, cognitive issues, and low mood.

An even larger share reported moderate or severe symptoms at one of the two check ins without it lasting through both: 19.3% at three months and 27.5% at six months.

The researchers, writing in the journal, said the pattern shows how much of a foothold long COVID still has among people who work in healthcare.

"These findings underscore the frequency of persistent Long COVID symptoms among HCP," the team wrote, referring to healthcare personnel.

The numbers behind the risk

Women in the study had roughly three times the adjusted odds of still having symptoms months later compared with men, after the researchers adjusted for other factors like age and health history (aOR 3.05).

Age also played a large role.

Workers between 50 and 64 years old had close to twice the odds of lingering symptoms compared with workers aged 18 to 29 (aOR 1.94).

For workers 65 and older, the odds were three and a half times higher than the youngest group (aOR 3.52). Having two or more existing health conditions raised the odds by roughly two and a half times (aOR 2.49).

Workers who had a prior COVID-19 infection within 12 months of enrolling in the study also had nearly twice the odds of persistent symptoms (aOR 1.78).

The researchers said this fits a wider pattern seen in other research: people who catch COVID-19 more than once tend to carry a higher cumulative burden of long-COVID symptoms than people who have been infected only once, and a repeat infection can add fresh symptoms on top of ones still lingering from an earlier bout.

Job role mattered too, though in the opposite direction.

Physicians (aOR 0.21), nurses (aOR 0.59), and therapists (aOR 0.27) in the study actually had lower odds of persistent symptoms than healthcare workers in other roles, a difference the study did not explain.

An unexpected vaccination finding

CIDRAP, the infectious-disease news service run by the University of Minnesota, first reported a separate, unexpected association the authors found: recent COVID vaccination was linked to a 44% higher rate of persistent symptoms compared with no vaccination in the prior six months.

CIDRAP's Laine Bergeson reported that the authors called this finding "unexpected," and cautioned that the study was not designed to assess vaccine effects, flagging possible selection or misclassification bias in who chose to respond to the survey.

The researchers did not draw a conclusion from this finding beyond noting it needs further study.

What the numbers mean

An odds ratio compares one group against another group in the same study, not against the general public.

When the study says women had about three times the adjusted odds of persistent symptoms, that is a comparison between women and men inside this same group of 1,496 healthcare workers, not a claim about how common long COVID is in the wider population.

The study did not establish why women, older workers, or people with existing health conditions were more affected.

It found an association, not a cause.

The researchers said the study was not designed to explain the biological or social reasons behind the pattern, only to measure how common it was.

What the study could not confirm

The findings came from surveys, not clinical exams.

Participants rated their own symptoms on a scale from no symptoms to severe, which means the numbers reflect what people reported feeling rather than a doctor's diagnosis.

A staffing problem hiding in the data

Beyond the individual symptoms, the researchers pointed to a wider concern.

A healthcare workforce that is already short staffed in many parts of the world could face more absences, reduced hours, or workers stepping back from certain duties if long COVID symptoms persist at this rate among the people delivering care.

The study's authors said the results point to a possible strain on how sustainable the healthcare workforce is going forward, through things like accommodations, modified schedules, or workers changing roles.

The study did not measure how many workers had actually left their jobs or reduced their hours because of long COVID.

Sources: Kontowicz E, Irish AK, Lee LC, et al. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, published September 21, 2026, DOI 10.1002/ajim.70140. Study team included University of Iowa Health Care, Jackson Memorial Hospital, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, and the CDC COVID-19 Response Team; reported by Laine Bergeson, CIDRAP, University of Minnesota, September 2026.