Prolonged Neurocognitive Consequences of COVID-19: A Comparative Study in Workers from Escuela Politécnica del Litoral in Ecuador
Rev. Hosp. Psiq. Hab. Volumen 21| No 2 | Año 2024 |
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Individuals with more education have access to better health care resources, facilitating more efficient
recovery and, therefore, better motor coordination, which can determine the level of post-COVID recovery
and the healthy development of cognitive and motor skills.
Discussion
The analysis of demographic factors revealed statistically weak results with no notable differences by
gender and age. In the case group (n = 40), there were 22 women (55%) and 18 men (45%), with a mean
age of 41.12 years (range 25 to 63), and an average of 17.41 years of education. In the control group (n =
13), there were subjects of both genders with a mean age of 30.08 years (range 26 to 35) and an average
of 19.77 years of education. A meta-analysis with 5515 records revealed the presence of cognitive decline
in executive functions, processing speed, attention, and memory in COVID-19-recovered individuals,
without differentiation by severity, cognitive domains, age, or gender.(13,14) In the Ecuadorian population
(n = 50) that experienced COVID-19 symptoms, no significant relationship was found between cognitive
decline and factors such as gender (p = 0.647), age (p = 0.302), and educational level (p = 0.515), using
the MoCA in subjects between 18 and 65 years old.
Clinical observations suggest that the severity of infection, hospitalization, and the use of multiple
medications can significantly influence the level of cognitive decline.(1) Some memory, language, and
executive function tests have been used in subjects with self-reported cognitive symptoms to objectively
determine these manifestations. Researchers found a consistent pattern of memory deficits in those subjects
who had experienced COVID-19 infection, with an increase in deficits related to the severity of self-
reported symptoms in outpatient subjects. Studies in hospitalized subjects show a marked difference in the
assessment results of cognitive decline compared to outpatient subjects.(15)
Significant differences were found in the Stroop task (p = 0.003) in correct responses and reaction time (p
= 0.001), indicating a decrease in reaction time to visual stimuli in COVID-19-recovered subjects, as
previously demonstrated in earlier studies. In subjects evaluated with the Stroop test and the MoCA, 6
months after COVID-19 diagnosis, a significant impact was found on attention skills, executive functions,
as well as learning and long-term memory.(16) The results suggest that hospitalized individuals are more
likely to have deficiencies in attention, executive functioning, and verbal memory, or slower processing
speed.(16-17)
The Nautilus project evaluated 428 subjects in the first year post-COVID-19 (319 survivors and 109
healthy controls) aged between 18 and 65, applying a comprehensive battery of neurocognitive tests. In
this study, learning and long-term memory, processing speed, language, and executive functions were
significantly worse in the post-COVID group compared to healthy controls.(18) A study of young adult
COVID-19 survivors (mean age 49.12 years; SD: 7.84) assessed the impact on cognition and neurological
manifestations of COVID-19 in subjects exposed to different health conditions (non-hospitalized n = 21;
hospitalized without ICU or oxygen therapy n = 42; hospitalized with ICU and oxygen therapy n = 107;