Key Findings

• 4% of respondents from a panel of adult volunteers residing in mainland France meet the criteria for a post-COVID-19 condition according to the WHO’s consensus definition, which requires at least three months to have elapsed since infection—that is, 30% of people who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 more than three months ago. This would correspond to 2.06 million people over the age of 18 affected in the French population as of early April 2022.

• The prevalence of post-COVID-19 condition was higher:

  • among women,

  • among working-age adults,

  • among those who had been hospitalized.

• The prevalence of post-COVID-19 conditions decreased with the time elapsed since SARS-CoV-2 infection, but more than 20% of people who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 still met the criteria for a post-COVID-19 condition 18 months after infection.

• Nearly 11% of respondents with post-COVID-19 condition reported not having sought medical care in the 12 months prior to the survey (more often men under 35).

• General practitioners were the healthcare professionals most frequently consulted (~87%) by patients with post-COVID-19 conditions.

• The most common types of specialized care sought by individuals with post-COVID-19 conditions involved specialists in pulmonology (~16%), neurology (~11%), and infectious diseases (~5%).