Department of Neurology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
Department of Neurology, Provincial Hospital of Kufstein, Kufstein, Austria.
Ann Clin Transl Neurol. 2024 Sep;11(9):2360-2371. doi: 10.1002/acn3.52149. Epub 2024 Jul 19.
This study aimed to evaluate subjective cognitive, physical, and mental health symptoms as well as objective cognitive deficits in COVID-19 patients 1 year after infection.
This was a cross-sectional study. Seventy-four patients, who contracted a SARS-CoV-2 infection in 2020, underwent an in-person neuropsychological assessment in 2021. This included standardized tests of memory, attention, and executive functions. In addition, participants also responded to scales on subjective attention deficits, mental health symptoms, and fatigue. Patients' scores were compared to published norms.
Patients (N = 74) had a median age of 56 years (42% female). According to the initial disease severity, they were classified as mild (outpatients, 32%), moderate (hospitalized, non-ICU-admitted, 45%), or severe (ICU-admitted, 23%). Hospitalized patients were more often affected than outpatients. In general, deficits were most common in attention (23%), followed by memory (15%) and executive functions (3%). Patients reported increased levels of fatigue (51%), anxiety (30%), distractibility in everyday situations (20%), and depression (15%). An additional analysis suggested an association between lower scores in an attention task and hyperferritinemia. As indicated by a hierarchical regression analysis, subjective distractibility was significantly predicted by current anxiety and fatigue symptoms but not by objective attention performance (final model, adj-R = 0.588, P < 0.001).
One year after infection, COVID-19 patients can have frequent attention deficits and can complain about symptoms such as fatigue, anxiety, and distractibility. Anxiety and fatigue, more than objective cognitive deficits, have an impact on the patients' experienced impairments in everyday life.
本研究旨在评估 COVID-19 患者感染 1 年后的主观认知、身体和心理健康症状以及客观认知缺陷。
这是一项横断面研究。2020 年感染 SARS-CoV-2 的 74 名患者于 2021 年接受了面对面的神经心理评估。这包括记忆、注意力和执行功能的标准化测试。此外，参与者还对注意力缺陷、心理健康症状和疲劳的主观量表做出了回应。患者的分数与已发表的标准进行了比较。
患者（N=74）的中位年龄为 56 岁（42%为女性）。根据最初的疾病严重程度，他们被分为轻度（门诊患者，32%）、中度（住院但未入住 ICU，45%）或重度（入住 ICU，23%）。住院患者比门诊患者更常受到影响。总的来说，缺陷最常见于注意力（23%），其次是记忆（15%）和执行功能（3%）。患者报告疲劳（51%）、焦虑（30%）、日常情况下分心（20%）和抑郁（15%）的水平增加。进一步的分析表明，注意力任务的得分较低与高铁蛋白血症有关。分层回归分析表明，当前的焦虑和疲劳症状显著预测了主观注意力不集中，而不是客观注意力表现（最终模型，调整后的 R2=0.588，P<0.001）。
感染 1 年后，COVID-19 患者可能会经常出现注意力缺陷，并可能抱怨疲劳、焦虑和注意力不集中等症状。焦虑和疲劳对患者日常生活中所经历的障碍的影响比客观认知缺陷更大。
