Musculoskeletal Pain During Long COVID: Are There Gender or Racial-Ethnic Differences?

Musculoskeletal pain is a common long COVID symptom. The purpose of this study was to examine gender and racial-ethnic differences in pain-related outcomes during long COVID. In this study, adult patients (≥18 years) were identified through an electronic health record as having a positive PCR COVID test and completed a questionnaire to ascertain symptoms after their acute phase of COVID-19 (i.e., long COVID). Of 507 participants with complete data, 46% (n=231) reported musculoskeletal pain. Chi-square tests found no differences in long COVID pain by gender (150/303 [50%] women vs. 81/195 [42%] men) or racial-ethnic groups (49/102 [48%] People of Color [POC] vs. 182/396 [46%] White). We examined interactions between pain during long COVID with patient gender and race-ethnicity on PROMIS-29 outcomes (pain intensity, pain interference, anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep, and physical and social functioning). ANOVAs indicated there were no gender-by-pain interactions. There were significant race-by-pain interactions for depression (F[1,432]=4.32, p<.05) and anxiety (F[1,432]=4.01, p<.05). Both White and POC participants reported greater depression and anxiety with pain (vs. no pain); however, the effect was stronger for POC participants. An important limitation was our inability to examine individual POC groups due to the small sample size. Future work should investigate differences by specific racial-ethnic groups and potential contributing factors (e.g., comorbidities). This line of inquiry may inform tailoring treatment plans, such as incorporating mental health services, to improve pain and health equity. Funding: Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention (75D30121C10207) and National Institutes of Health (T32MH02002).