One-year cognitive follow-up of COVID-19 hospitalized patients.
Eur J Neurol
; 29(7): 2006-2014, 2022 07.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35285122
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
Cognitive dysfunction has been observed following recovery from COVID-19. To the best of our knowledge, however, no study has assessed the progression of cognitive impairment after 1 year. The aim was to assess cognitive functioning at 1 year from hospital discharge, and eventual associations with specific clinical variables.METHODS:
Seventy-six patients (aged 22-74 years) who had been hospitalized for COVID-19 were recruited. Patients received neuropsychological assessments at 5 (n = 76) and 12 months (n = 53) from hospital discharge.RESULTS:
Over half (63.2%) of the patients had deficits in at least one test at 5 months. Compared to the assessment at 5 months, verbal memory, attention and processing speed improved significantly after 1 year (all p < 0.05), whereas visuospatial memory did not (all p > 0.500). The most affected domains after 1 year were processing speed (28.3%) and long-term visuospatial (18.1%) and verbal (15.1%) memory. Lower PaO2 /FiO2 ratios in the acute phase were associated with worse verbal long-term memory (p = 0.029) and visuospatial learning (p = 0.041) at 5 months. Worse visuospatial long-term memory at 5 months was associated with hyposmia (p = 0.020) and dysgeusia (p = 0.037).CONCLUSION:
Our study expands the results from previous studies showing that cognitive impairment can still be observed after 1 year. Patients with severe COVID-19 should receive periodic cognitive follow-up evaluations, as cognitive deficits in recovered patients could have social and occupational implications.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Cognition Disorders
/
Cognitive Dysfunction
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Eur J Neurol
Journal subject:
NEUROLOGIA
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: