Gaber, Tarek A · Advances in rehabilitation science and practice · 2023 · DOI
This study looked at why older adults (especially those over 70) seem to report Long COVID fatigue less often than younger people. Rather than assuming older adults simply don't report symptoms, the researchers found that older people who do get post-COVID fatigue experience it differently—it doesn't seem to follow the typical pattern of getting worse after physical activity. The study suggests that changes in how aging bodies work (in immunity, metabolism, and genes) might explain why fatigue after COVID looks different in elderly patients.
Understanding how Long COVID and ME/CFS symptoms differ with age is crucial for developing age-appropriate diagnostic criteria and treatments. This research challenges the assumption that low symptom reporting in older adults is purely a bias problem, suggesting instead that aging bodies may experience post-viral fatigue through different biological mechanisms. Better understanding these age-related differences could improve how healthcare providers recognize and treat these conditions across all age groups.
This observational study does not prove causation between aging mechanisms and altered fatigue presentation—it can only identify associations in the data collected. The study cannot definitively rule out all forms of reporting bias or establish which specific immunological, metabolic, or epigenetic factors are responsible. Additionally, the findings are based on local data and may not generalize to all elderly populations without validation in larger, diverse cohorts.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Gaber, Tarek A (2023). Pattern of Post COVID Fatigue in Elderly Patients.. Advances in rehabilitation science and practice. https://doi.org/10.1177/27536351231194561
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-gaber-2023-pattern-post,
author = {Gaber, Tarek A},
title = {Pattern of Post COVID Fatigue in Elderly Patients.},
journal = {Advances in rehabilitation science and practice},
year = {2023},
doi = {10.1177/27536351231194561},
note = {PubMed: 37638148},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/gaber-2023-pattern-post},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/gaber-2023-pattern-post
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.