TUESDAY, Oct. 20, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases (AIRD) have an increased risk for long COVID, according to a study published online Oct. 14 in Arthritis & Rheumatology.
Namrata Singh, M.D., from the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from the National Clinical Cohort Collaborative to examine the prevalence of and factors associated with long COVID in patients with AIRD. Patients with AIRD were compared to matched non-AIRD controls using 1:1 nearest-neighbor propensity score matching.
The researchers found that long COVID occurred in 2.8 and 1.5 percent of patients with AIRD and without AIRD in the matched cohort of 187,106 patients. AIRD was associated with an increased risk for long COVID compared with non-AIRD in a multivariable analysis (adjusted hazard ratio, 1.56). Higher acute COVID-19 severity, pulmonary disease, obesity, and exposure to rituximab or glucocorticoids were associated with an increased risk for long COVID among patients with AIRD. There was an association seen for Sjögren syndrome with a higher risk for long COVID.
"These findings highlight the need for targeted monitoring and further investigation into mechanisms and prevention strategies for long COVID in patients with autoimmune diseases," the authors write.
