Assessing the Social Consequences of Long COVID in the U.S.: Disparities, Financial Stability, and Mental Health Impacts

Post-COVID Syndrome, commonly known as Long COVID, is a newly emerged disabling chronic illness that has profoundly impacted the quality of life and livelihood of millions in the United States and globally since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite its widespread prevalence, the current understanding of the illness in its etiology and mechanisms of impairment is limited, but even more scant is our knowledge of its contributing social factors and societal consequences. This dissertation seeks to address these gaps by applying sociological theories and statistical analyses to examine the social dimensions and individual consequences of Long COVID through three independent but interrelated studies. In Article I, the Fundamental Cause Theory and the Intersectionality framework are employed to investigate disparities in the prevalence of Long COVID across race, gender, and socioeconomic status in the United States. Article II assesses the economic repercussions of Long COVID on individuals and families through the lens of the Social Model of Disability and Impairment Effect, incorporating an intersectional approach to identify vulnerable subpopulations. Finally, Article III explores the association between Long COVID and mental health outcomes, particularly depressive and anxiety symptoms. Guided by the Stress Process Model, this study proposes a conceptual framework to explain the pathways through which key mediators (e.g., functional impairment, financial strain, social support) and moderators (e.g., gender, race) could link Long COVID to mental health outcomes. The analysis leverages data from the Household Pulse Survey (HPS), the largest available national dataset in the U.S. designed by the Census Bureau to capture the real-time influence of the pandemic on American households. Insights gained from this body of work contribute to understanding how Long COVID exacerbates existing social inequalities while providing actionable recommendations for policies aimed at mitigating its impacts. This work also lays a foundation for future sociological research on Long COVID and other understudied chronic illnesses.