Age-dependent phenotypes of cognitive impairment as sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection
journal contribution
posted on 2025-03-07, 11:02 authored by Gabriela Gonzalez Aleman, George D Vavougios, Carmela Tartaglia, Nalakath A Uvais, Alla Guekht, Akram A Hosseini, Vincenzina Lo Re, Catterina Ferreccio, Giovanni D'Avossa, Hernan P Zamponi, Mariana Figueredo Aguiar, Agustin Yecora, Mohammad Zia Ul Haq Katshu, Vasileios T Stavrou, Stylianos Boutlas, Konstantinos I Gourgoulianis, Camila Botero, Francisco González Insúa, Santiago Perez-Lloret, Mikhail Zinchuk, Anna Gersamija, Sofya Popova, Yulia Bryzgalova, Ekaterina Sviatskaya, Giovanna Russelli, Federica Avorio, Sophia Wang, Paul Edison, Yoshiki Niimi, Hamid R Sohrabi, Elizabeta B Mukaetova Ladinska, Daria Neidre, Gabriel A de ErausquinCognitive changes associated with PASC may not be uniform across populations. We conducted individual-level pooled analyses and meta-analyses of cognitive assessments from eight prospective cohorts, comprising 2,105 patients and 1,432 controls from Argentina, Canada, Chile, Greece, India, Italy, Russia, and the UK. The meta-analysis found no differences by country of origin. The profile and severity of cognitive impairment varied by age, with mild attentional impairment observed in young and middle-aged adults, but memory, language, and executive function impairment in older adults. The risk of moderate to severe impairment doubled in older adults. Moderately severe or severe impairment was significantly associated with infection diagnoses (chi-square = 26.57, p ≤ 0.0001) and the severity of anosmia (chi-square = 31.81, p ≤ 0.0001). We found distinct age-related phenotypes of cognitive impairment in patients recovering from COVID-19. We identified the severity of acute illness and the presence of olfactory dysfunction as the primary predictors of dementia-like impairment in older adults.
Funding
The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors were funded completely of partially by: Fundacion FULTRA, Argentina (GG, HZ, AY, MF), National Institute of Aging Grants # U19AG076581, P30AG059305, and P30AG066546 (GE), ISIDORe (PID: 23245) (GV), COVALENT study, included herein received funding from EU-OSHA (SB, KG), University Hospital Foundation (CT), IQRAA International Hospital and Research Center, Calicut, Kerala, India (NU, MU), Italian Health Ministry, Ricerca Corrente 2023 (VL, GR, FA), ANID/CONICYT FONDECYT Regular 1212066; ANID/FONDAP/15130011 (CF), NIA K23AG06255, NIA R21AG074179, NIA P30AG072976 (SW), JPND/Italian Ministry/(European Union) Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health Research, UK (PE), Western Australia Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation grant for the Effect of COVID-19 on mental health of the elderly (HS). In addition, GV, KG, and VS would like to thank the personnel of the COVID-19 outpatient clinic and as well as research collaborators on long COVID research: Nico Biagi, Dimitrios Mysiris, Kyriaki Astara, Eleana Pitaraki, Konstantinos Tourlakopoulos, Eirini Papayianni, Glykeria Tsirimona, Ílias E. Dimeas, Pelagia Foka, Olga Papaggeli, Georgia Xiromerisiou, Sotirios Zarogiannis, Zoe Daniil 2, and Georgios Hadjigeorgiou.
History
Author affiliation
College of Life Sciences Psychology & Vision SciencesVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
