Cognitive Impairment in Non-critical, Mild-to-Moderate COVID-19 Survivors

• Published in: Frontiers in psychology 2022-02, Vol.13, p.770459-770459
• Main Authors: Henneghan, Ashley M, Lewis, Kimberly A, Gill, Eliana, Kesler, Shelli R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: anxiety; cognition; COVID-19; executive function; Psychology; psychosocial
• ISSN: 1664-1078; 1664-1078
• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.770459

Previous studies of post-acute COVID-19 syndrome have focused on critical cases with severe disease. However, most cases are mild to moderate in disease severity. We aimed to examine cognitive outcomes in cases of non-critical, mild-to-moderate COVID-19. Design, Setting, and Participants: In this cross-sectional study, we enrolled 72 adults aged 22 to 65 years in Central Texas who had non-critical, mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infection between 13 January 2021 and 20 April 2021. We remotely administered cognitive-behavioral testing to determine the frequency of cognitive impairment and examine demographic, clinical, and psychosocial contributors to impairment. The frequency of objective cognitive impairment was 40%. The largest number of participants (24%) showed impairment on a measure of executive functioning. Attention and processing speed was more impaired in males (  = 1.5, 95%CI = 0.23-2.9). Males endorsed lower adherence to social distancing guidelines (  = 590,  = 0.01), which was in turn associated with cognitive impairment across participants (  = -0.30,  = 0.01). Younger age was correlated with impairment (  = -0.26,  = 0.03) but was also associated with racial/ethnic minority status (  = -0.31,  = 0.01) and increased psychological symptoms (   0.24,