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New research · Infectious Disease
Neuroepidemiology · 2h
Meta-analysisNeuroepidemiology · 2025

Gender Disparities in Neurological Symptoms of Long COVID: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Alon Gorenshtein, Liron Leibovitch, Tom Liba … Yael Stern
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Infectious DiseaseMeta-analysis

Women have a higher risk of anosmia in long COVID compared to men.

Gender Disparities in Neurological Symptoms of Long COVID: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Alon Gorenshtein et al. · Neuroepidemiology · 2025
Background

Female gender is a known risk factor for long COVID.

Methods

We included studies on female individuals who presented with specific neurological symptoms at least 12 weeks after confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis from PubMed, Central, Scopus, and Web of Science.

n = 6,849 patients
Results

women have a higher risk of loss of smell in long COVID compared to men

RR by subgroup · 95% CI
null = 1
40
1.37
37
1.38
38
1.49
49
1.61
More results

A total of 5,632 eligible articles were identified.

This article provides relevant information from 12 studies involving 6,849 patients, of which 3,414 were female.

The earliest publication date was September 16, 2021, while the latest was June 11, 2024.

More results

High heterogenicity was found for fatigue, brain fog, and anxiety due to the diverse methodologies employed in the studies.

“
Conclusion · 1 of 2

Our findings suggest that women are at a higher risk for long-COVID neurological symptoms, including fatigue, headaches, brain fog, depression, and anosmia, compared to men.

Conclusion · 2 of 2

The prevalence of these symptoms decreases after 1 year, based on limited data from the small number of studies available beyond this period.

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