Schmidt Sergio L, Araguez Ingrid M, Neves Vithória V, van Duinkerken Eelco, Schmidt Guilherme J, Tolentino Julio C, Gjorup Ana Lúcia T
Department of Neurology, Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Department of Medical Psychology, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Front Psychol. 2022 Oct 24;13:1024584. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1024584. eCollection 2022.
The impact of COVID-19 on chronic pain (CP) in non-infected vulnerable South American subjects is unknown. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at increased risk for CP. During the pandemic, many HCWs with CP kept working. Knowing how cognition is affected by CP in these subjects is an important subject for work safety. The attention domain has a pivotal role in cognition. Previously, the Continuous Visual Attention Test (CVAT) was applied to detect specific attention deficits in fibromyalgia patients. The present investigation described CP prevalence in non-infected Brazilian HCWs during the pandemic and assessed HCWs' attentional performance with the aid of the CVAT. This study was carried out at a reference University Hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. HCWs of both sexes, aged 20 or older, were interviewed from August to December 2020. A 90-second version of the CVAT was performed. The average reaction time to correct responses and the respective intraindividual reaction time variability for correct responses to target (VRT) was determined. Omission and commission errors were also calculated. Then, for each participant we calculated the -scores of the CVAT variables based on the distribution of CVAT performance of 211 healthy subjects (reference-comparison group). HCWs with -scores > 1.64 were classified as significantly impaired. From the 154 selected HCWs, 72 reported CP during the pandemic (prevalence = 47%). Post hoc ANCOVAs showed that the average correct VRT was significantly higher in the CP group than in the non-CP group ( = 4.99, df = 1/150, = 0.027, η = 0.032). The percentage of participants with impaired VRT performance was 30% ( = 21) in the CP group and 16% ( = 13) in the non-CP group. The difference between these two propositions reached significance (χ = 3.96, df = 1, = 0.047). As VRT is associated with the sustained-attention subdomain, our data suggest that this subdomain is disrupted in the CP group.
新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）对未感染的南美易感人群慢性疼痛（CP）的影响尚不清楚。医护人员（HCWs）患CP的风险增加。在疫情期间，许多患有CP的医护人员仍继续工作。了解这些人群中CP如何影响认知是工作安全的一个重要课题。注意力领域在认知中起关键作用。此前，连续视觉注意力测试（CVAT）已被用于检测纤维肌痛患者的特定注意力缺陷。本研究描述了疫情期间未感染的巴西医护人员中CP的患病率，并借助CVAT评估了医护人员的注意力表现。本研究在巴西里约热内卢的一家参考大学医院进行。2020年8月至12月对年龄在20岁及以上的男女医护人员进行了访谈。进行了90秒版本的CVAT。确定了对正确反应的平均反应时间以及对目标正确反应的个体内反应时间变异性（VRT）。还计算了遗漏错误和执行错误。然后，根据211名健康受试者（参考比较组）的CVAT表现分布，为每位参与者计算CVAT变量的z分数。z分数>1.64的医护人员被归类为有明显损伤。在154名选定的医护人员中，72人报告在疫情期间患有CP（患病率=47%）。事后协方差分析显示，CP组的平均正确VRT显著高于非CP组（F=4.99，df=1/150，p=0.027，η=0.032）。CP组中VRT表现受损的参与者百分比为30%（n=21），非CP组为16%（n=13）。这两个比例之间的差异具有统计学意义（χ=3.96，df=1，p=0.047）。由于VRT与持续注意力子领域相关，我们的数据表明该子领域在CP组中受到干扰。
