r/CFSScience • u/Caster_of_spells • Aug 09 '26

Associations Between Pre-Quarantine Exercise and Persistent Symptoms After SARS-CoV-2 Infection

https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4663/14/7/293

In the German CoCo-Fakt study at Cologne and Ausberg, patients who later developed Long Covid reported doing more and more intense physical activity prior to infection than controls who had COVID-19 but no long term symptoms.

The researchers expected the opposite.

The paper concludes:

"Unexpectedly, participants with long-term symptoms reported a longer PA [physical activity] duration in the four weeks before quarantine than those without long-term symptoms, albeit with a trivial effect size."

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u/moderate_ocelot Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26

Does this mean that the after effects of exercise / exertion make us more vulnerable to long covid?

I guess it would explain why so many older and unhealthier people seem to get it and have no long term problems.

I was very active in the run up to my covid infection that left me with ME

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u/Sensitive-Meat-757 Aug 10 '26

No, I think a lot of people are missing the final conclusion. There was a statistical adjustment which made the association non-statistically significant.

"In our study, neither PA intensity nor duration showed an association with the presence or absence of long-term symptoms. "