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. 2023 Aug 17:14:1216768.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1216768. eCollection 2023.

Prevalence and correlates of subjective cognitive impairment in Chinese psychiatric patients during the fifth wave of COVID-19 in Hong Kong

Vivian Shi Cheng Fung  1 , Jacob Man Tik Chan  1 , Eileena Mo Ching Chui  2 , Corine Sau Man Wong  3 , Joe Kwun Nam Chan  1 , Ryan Sai Ting Chu  1 , Yuen Kiu So  1 , Albert Kar Kin Chung  1 , Krystal Chi Kei Lee  1 , Calvin Pak Wing Cheng  1 , Chi Wing Law  2 , Wai Chi Chan  1 , Wing Chung Chang  1   4
Affiliations

Prevalence and correlates of subjective cognitive impairment in Chinese psychiatric patients during the fifth wave of COVID-19 in Hong Kong

Vivian Shi Cheng Fung et al. Front Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Introduction: The extent of cognitive impairment and its association with psychological distress among people with pre-existing mental illness during COVID-19 is understudied. This study aimed to investigate prevalence and correlates of subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) in Chinese psychiatric patients during fifth-wave of COVID-19 in Hong Kong (HK).

Methods: Four-hundred-eight psychiatric outpatients aged 18-64 years were assessed with questionnaires between 28 March and 8 April 2022, encompassing illness profile, psychopathological symptoms, coping-styles, resilience, and COVID-19 related factors. Participants were categorized into moderate-to-severe and intact/mild cognitive impairment (CI+ vs. CI-) groups based on severity of self-reported cognitive complaints. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were conducted to determine variables associated with CI+ status.

Results: One-hundred-ninety-nine participants (48.8%) experienced CI+. A multivariate model on psychopathological symptoms found that depressive and post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD)-like symptoms were related to CI+, while a multivariate model on coping, resilience and COVID-19 related factors revealed that avoidant coping, low resilience and more stressors were associated with CI+. Final combined model demonstrated the best model performance and showed that more severe depressive and PTSD-like symptoms, and adoption of avoidant coping were significantly associated with CI+.

Conclusion: Almost half of the sample of psychiatric patients reported cognitive complaints during fifth-wave of COVID-19 in HK. Greater depressive and PTSD-like symptom severity, and maladaptive (avoidant) coping were found as correlates of SCI. COVID-19 related factors were not independently associated with SCI in psychiatric patients. Early detection with targeted psychological interventions may therefore reduce psychological distress, and hence self-perceived cognitive difficulties in this vulnerable population.

Keywords: COVID-19; coping styles; depression; mental disorders; self-reported cognitive complaints; traumatic stress symptoms.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves of the multivariate logistic regression models for prediction of cognitive impairment status. Model 1: Prediction of psychopathological symptoms on cognitive impairment. Model 2: Prediction of resilience, coping and COVID-19 related factors on cognitive impairment. Final model: Combined factors of models 1 and 2 for predicting cognitive impairment.
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