Background and Objectives: Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals infected with COVID-19 typically recover within a few weeks. However, nearly one in five individuals have reported symptoms lasting longer than 4 weeks. While there are studies on long COVID in healthcare personnel, little is known about long COVID among other essential workers. In this study, we 1) describe the period prevalence of long COVID in a cohort of essential workers; and 2) estimate the association of long COVID and type of occupational group.

Methods: Data assessing for long COVID cases in the RECOVER cohort study was available between June 2022-March 2023. Participants with at least one COVID infection and COVID-like symptoms (CLI) lasting longer than 4 weeks were defined as long COVID cases. The type and frequency of long COVID symptoms were tabulated. Binary logistic regression models estimated the association of long COVID cases and occupational groups while controlling for covariates.

Results: Among 283 participants, 22.3% met the long COVID case criteria, of which 27.0% were healthcare personnel, 22.7% were first responders, and 20.9% were frontline workers. The median duration of symptoms among all long COVID cases was 180 days, range: [45, 436]. Among all reported symptoms, the most frequent were fatigue (49.2%), fogginess in thinking (38.0%), and headache (28.6%). Compared to healthcare personnel, workers with long COVID were less likely to be employed as first responders (aOR: 0.758 [0.284, 2.023] or frontline workers (aOR: 0.759 [0.269, 2.142] even while controlling for vaccination status, socio-demographic and other work characteristics.

Conclusion: Close to a quarter of study participants met the long COVID case definition with variation across essential occupational groups. In this Florida cohort, healthcare personnel had the highest number of long COVID cases warranting further research.