Profiling cognitive impairment in mild COVID-19 patients: A case-control study at a secondary healthcare centre in the hilly region of North India
Context: COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a serious threat to humanity even after the last 2.5 years and multiple reported waves. Post-COVID-19 cognitive impairment has a detrimental effect on the quality of life, education, occupation, psychosocial as well as adaptive functioning and independence....
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.annalsofian.org/article.asp?issn=0972-2327;year=2022;volume=25;issue=6;spage=1099;epage=1103;aulast=Khanna |
| Summary: | Context: COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a serious threat to humanity even after the last 2.5 years and multiple reported waves. Post-COVID-19 cognitive impairment has a detrimental effect on the quality of life, education, occupation, psychosocial as well as adaptive functioning and independence. Aims and Objective: Profiling the cognitive impairment in the mild COVID-19 recovered patients. Settings and Design: Interview-based case-control study. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted at a secondary healthcare center in a hilly region of north India. Group A included mild COVID-19 recovered patients and Group B included local non-COVID healthy individuals. Both groups of participants were interviewed using Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) to identify global and domain-wise cognitive impairment. Statistics Used: Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the demographic and clinical variables. The Chi-square test was used to evaluate these results and statistical analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 23) program. Results: A total of 284 individuals were enrolled in our study, equally split into Groups A (cases) and B (controls). No global cognitive decline was found in any participant. However, 40 cases scored low on MoCA. The decrease in domain-wise cognitive function was statistically significant for visuospatial skill/executive function and attention. Conclusion: Our results have demonstrated that there is domain-wise cognitive impairment associated with mild COVID-19 disease. We recommend lowering the threshold of the MoCA to identify the early cognitive impairment and the inclusion of detailed cognitive assessment in post-COVID-19 follow-ups to initiate early cognitive rehabilitation among these patients. |
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| ISSN: | 0972-2327 1998-3549 |