Long COVID, Episodic Disability and Labour Force Participation
Calls to Action for Government, Employers, Human Resource (HR) Professionals, Insurers and Benefit Providers: Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA)
A new policy brief, “Long COVID, Episodic Disability and Labour Force Participation,” has been published by the Long COVID and Episodic Disability Study Team and Habitus Consulting Collective. The policy paper highlights 13 calls to action for governments, employers, benefit providers,
HR professionals, and insurers to create conditions that facilitate better outcomes for people living with Long COVID and their employers. Derived from the Long COVID and Episodic Disability study, this policy brief will be useful to people with lived experiences, government, employers, human resource professionals, insurers, benefit providers, clinicians, and researchers alike!
Background:
Long COVID has impacted millions of people around the world. Long COVID may manifest in several potential health challenges, spanning physical, mental and emotional, and cognitive domains. These symptoms have the potential to impact one’s work/employment, day-to-day life, and social engagement. For many individuals living with Long COVID, their symptoms may fluctuate over time. Some individuals living with Long COVID refer to this fluctuation in symptoms as episodic disability, which is characterized by physical, cognitive, or mental-emotional health challenges, difficulties with day-to-day activities, challenges to social inclusion (including within employment), as well as uncertainty about the future which may fluctuate on a daily basis or over months or years living with the condition.
Given the widespread impact of Long COVID, it has affected a large number of working age individuals. This has resulted in lost jobs, challenges and struggle to maintain employment, and substantial economic strain (faced by individuals in terms of lost wages and savings, but also by employers and governments in terms of labour market shortages and health care and disability costs).
The Long COVID and Episodic Disability Research Study team includes researchers, clinicians, and people with lived experiences of Long COVID. The aim of this study is to obtain a better understanding of the disability experiences among people living with Long COVID, and assess the measurement properties of the Episodic Disability Questionnaire (EDQ) for its ability to measure presence, severity, and episodic nature of disability among people living with Long COVID. In the first phase of this research study, 40 semi-structured interviews were conducted with adults living with Long COVID (10 each from Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States) to explore experiences of disability and establish an episodic disability (ED) framework in the context of Long COVID. The policy brief builds on findings from these interviews, highlighting their experiences of episodic disability living with Long COVID and their impact on overall health and labour force participation.
Funding:
Funding for this policy brief was provided by the Ontario Strategy for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR) SUPPORT Unit, which is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Province of Ontario, and partner Ontario hospital foundations and institutions. The Long COVID and Episodic Disability Study was supported by the CIHR Emerging COVID-19 Research Gaps and Priorities Funding Opportunity (Funding Research Number #: GA4-177753).
Collaborators:
The following community organisations collaborated in this work: Long COVID Physio, Patient-Led Research Collaborative (PLRC), COVID Long-Haulers Support Group Canada, Long COVID Support, and Long COVID Advocacy Ireland.
