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Volume 5
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10.3390/covid5080136
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This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.
Article

Long COVID Frailty: A Comparative Analysis in a Veteran Population

by
Jerry Bradley
1,
Elizabeth Bast
2,
Natasha M. Resendes
1,3,
Fei Tang
3,
Victor D. Cevallos
3,
Dominique M. Tosi
1,3,
Leonardo Tamariz
1,4,
Ana Palacio
1,3 and
Iriana S. Hammel
1,3,*
1
Department of Medicine, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33125, USA
2
Miami Veterans Administration (VA) Healthcare System, Department of Ambulatory Medicine, Miami, FL 33125, USA
3
Miami Veterans Administration (VA) Healthcare System Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC), Miami, FL 33125, USA
4
Miami Veterans Administration (VA) Healthcare System, Department of Medicine, Miami, FL 33125, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
COVID 2025, 5(8), 136; https://doi.org/10.3390/covid5080136 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 11 July 2025 / Revised: 8 August 2025 / Accepted: 13 August 2025 / Published: 16 August 2025
(This article belongs to the Section Long COVID and Post-Acute Sequelae)
Versions Notes

Abstract

Long COVID is characterized by persistent symptoms affecting one or more organ systems for at least 3 months following a SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our study aimed to examine the characteristics of frailty seen in patients with Long COVID compared to the frailty seen in aging patients with multimorbidity. This is a retrospective cohort study conducted in the Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). The data used to calculate the Fried phenotype through the Johns Hopkins frailty calculator was collected from two separate clinics, a Long COVID clinic and a geriatric frailty clinic. We obtained the VA Frailty Index from VA CDW (Corporate Data Warehouse). We included 106 patients from the Long COVID clinic and 97 from the frailty clinic. Patients from the Long COVID clinic were significantly younger than those from the frailty clinic (60 ± 12.6 vs. 79.8 ± 5.8, p < 0.01). Patients with frailty in the Long COVID group experienced exhaustion (96.4% vs. 53.3%) and low activity (78.6% vs. 63.3%) at a higher rate than those in the geriatric frailty clinic. Long COVID may predispose patients to develop frailty that presents with a higher frequency of exhaustion and low activity.
Keywords: Long COVID; frailty; VA-FI; veterans Long COVID; frailty; VA-FI; veterans

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Bradley, J.; Bast, E.; Resendes, N.M.; Tang, F.; Cevallos, V.D.; Tosi, D.M.; Tamariz, L.; Palacio, A.; Hammel, I.S. Long COVID Frailty: A Comparative Analysis in a Veteran Population. COVID 2025, 5, 136. https://doi.org/10.3390/covid5080136

AMA Style

Bradley J, Bast E, Resendes NM, Tang F, Cevallos VD, Tosi DM, Tamariz L, Palacio A, Hammel IS. Long COVID Frailty: A Comparative Analysis in a Veteran Population. COVID. 2025; 5(8):136. https://doi.org/10.3390/covid5080136

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bradley, Jerry, Elizabeth Bast, Natasha M. Resendes, Fei Tang, Victor D. Cevallos, Dominique M. Tosi, Leonardo Tamariz, Ana Palacio, and Iriana S. Hammel. 2025. "Long COVID Frailty: A Comparative Analysis in a Veteran Population" COVID 5, no. 8: 136. https://doi.org/10.3390/covid5080136

APA Style

Bradley, J., Bast, E., Resendes, N. M., Tang, F., Cevallos, V. D., Tosi, D. M., Tamariz, L., Palacio, A., & Hammel, I. S. (2025). Long COVID Frailty: A Comparative Analysis in a Veteran Population. COVID, 5(8), 136. https://doi.org/10.3390/covid5080136

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