Study Details

Long Covid is is the name given to not recovering quickly after getting Covid-19. Some people  experience ongoing symptoms such as extreme exhaustion, difficulty breathing and memory or concentration problems for many weeks or months. These persistent symptoms affect people’s physical and mental health, and cause significant disruption to daily lives and people’s sense of who they are. People from ethnic minority groups tend to suffer more from COVID-19, e.g. more infections, with worse severity and death rates, especially for people from Arab, Black, South Asian backgrounds. 

Although so far there is no evidence that Long Covid is higher in these groups, lack of trust in healthcare, racism, stigma, discrimination, and language barriers experienced by these groups may hinder reporting of Long Covid symptoms and care and may mean they experience worse consequences of Long Covid. Current COVID-19 care management is not yet sufficiently informed by the needs of ethnic minorities, hindering equal access to quality healthcare. Minorities many times turn to families, alternative support systems such as local networks, religious and cultural communities, as well as traditional healers. Our research will look to understand views and experiences of under-served groups; alternative support systems used as well as what support they want and need from health care services. Findings will help us to imagine better healthcare services for these groups. The research has been informed by patients and the public.