Thomas B, Pattinson R, Edwards D, et al. Defining and measuring long COVID fatigue: a scoping review. BMJ Open 2024;14:e088530. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2024–0 88 530
The authors have identified several copyediting errors in their paper since it was published online.
Results
In the third paragraph, the eligibility criteria were met by 57 studies; however, the country-wise breakdown was not clearly provided. Additionally, the count for Italy was previously incorrect and has been revised from 8 to 7. The corrected text now reads:
‘Studies spanned 22 countries: Italy (n=7),27 44 54 60 67 71 72 Spain (n=6),30 39 43 57 59 65 UK (n=7),31 48 53 56 61 73 74 USA (n=6),32 35 36 52 75 76 Germany (n=5),28 38 50 63 77 Ireland (n=3),8 47 62 the Netherlands (n=3),51 68 78 Denmark (n=2),26 41 Egypt (n=2),66 79 Brazil (n=2),45 55 Hungary (n=2),40 80 France (n=1),64 India (n=2),37 81 Canada (n=1),9 Poland (n=1),69 Iraq (n=1),70 Switzerland (n=1),34 Chile (n=1),33 Austria (n=1),42 Israel (n=1),58 Turkey (n=1)29 and Japan (n=1).49
Definitions of long COVID fatigue
In the first paragraph, the term ‘Post-PESE’ was incorrectly used instead of ‘PESE,’ as PESE already stands for post-exertional symptom exacerbation. The redundant ‘Post’ has been removed. Additionally, a placeholder ‘X’ was not replaced with its correct value, which has now been updated to ‘4.’ The corrected text now reads:
‘PESE, which encompasses postexertional malaise, is used in 4four of the included studies to refer to an exacerbation of multiple symptoms due to exertion.’
In the second paragraph, the list of the ten most commonly used words in fatigue definitions was missing one term – ‘fatigue.’ The corrected text now reads:
‘The top 10 included were fatigue (n=56), physical (n=25), cognitive (n=16), mental (n=14), COVID (n=13), tiredness (n=9), feeling (n=9), exertion (n=8), central (n=7), and exhaustion (n=7).’
Table 2
The definition quoted in the fifth row has been updated to match the original manuscript. The corrected quote now reads:
‘In this paper, we usepatients’own descriptions of their symptoms (using their term‘brain fog’) and, when appropriate, the US National Cancer Institute definition of‘neurocognitive symptoms’to describe subjective problems‘to do with the ability to think and reason,(including)the ability to concentrate, remember things, process information, learn, speak, and understand’.31, p.2’
Discussion
In the third paragraph, the term ‘COVID’ was missing, and the phrase ‘it is often being used’ was repeated. The corrected text now reads:
‘Given that fatigue is a core component of PESE and long COVID, while PESE is not a type of fatigue in itself, it is often being used as a measure of fatigue in the studies identified in this review.’