Cognitive Outcomes in Post-COVID-19 Patients: A Cross-Sectional Neurological Assessment

Abstract

The cognitive impairment, also known as the brain fog, is also one of the severe consequences of post-acute COVID-19. Although, there are international data illustrating the high effect of neurocognitive, evidence shows that there is a shortage of evidence which illustrates the effect in the Indian populations. This paper was intended to compare cognitive functioning among COVID-19 epidemic survivors living in urban India, define and quantify the frequency, size and predictors of cognitive dysfunction using conventional neuropsychological tests. It was a cross-sectional study conducted in three tertiary hospitals in the time frame of January 2023 to March 2024 in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. They included four hundred and fifty-one COVID-19 recovered adults (at least 12 weeks after their infections) with a mean age of 1865 years. It was assessed using the cognitive ability which included Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Digit Span Test and Trail Making Test (TMT). The severity of the disease, comorbidity and information on hospitalization together with demographics were received. To determine the variables that can be used to predict cognitive impairment, statistical tests were undertaken using t-tests, analytical one way ANOVA and multiple linear regression. The percentage of those whose thinking was impaired, mildly (MoCA < 26), was 38.7 percent. The patients who had the severe cases of COVID-19 recorded very low scores in the MoCA values (23.5 ± 2.8) than those who had mild cases (27.1 ± 1.9, p < 0.001). Predictive significant factors of cognitive decline were hospitalization, hypoxia, old age, and comorbidities. The areas of most prominent impairments were in the areas of attention, executive functioning and memory. Long-term cognitive dysfunction occurs at a high rate among post-COVID-19 patients in urban India several months post-recovery. It might also be significant to make sure that the neurological morbidity is delayed through routine cognitive screening and timely rehabilitation.