Patients with COVID-19 more likely to experience gastrointestinal problems after infection, study suggests

The New York Times (3/7, Belluck) reports a large study suggests that patients with COVID-19 “were significantly more likely to experience gastrointestinal problems a year after infection than people who were not infected.” The study “compared medical records of 154,068” patients with COVID-19 “in the Veterans Health Administration system with about 5.6 million patients of similar age and other characteristics who had not contracted the coronavirus.” The findings, published in Nature Communications, showed patients with COVID-19 “were 36% more likely to have long-term gastrointestinal problems,” and “the most common diagnoses were acid-related disorders.”