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. 2023 Dec 7;8(1):bpad038.
doi: 10.1093/biomethods/bpad038. eCollection 2023.

COVID's long shadow: How SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 severity, and vaccination status affect long-term cognitive performance and health

Jaroslav Flegr  1 , Ashkan Latifi  1
Affiliations

COVID's long shadow: How SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 severity, and vaccination status affect long-term cognitive performance and health

Jaroslav Flegr et al. Biol Methods Protoc. .

Abstract

COVID-19 affects a variety of organs and systems of the body including the central nervous system. Recent research has shown that COVID-19 survivors often experience neurological and psychiatric complications that can last for months after infection. We conducted a large Internet study using online tests to analyze the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 severity, and vaccination on health, intelligence, memory, and information processing precision and speed in a cohort of 4445 subjects. We found that both SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity were associated with negative impacts on patients' health. Furthermore, we observed a negative association between COVID-19 severity and cognitive performance. Younger participants had a higher likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 contraction, while the elderly had a higher likelihood of severe COVID-19 and vaccination. The association between age and COVID-19 severity was primarily mediated by older participants' impaired long-term health. Vaccination was positively associated with intelligence and the precision of information processing. However, the positive association between vaccination and intelligence was likely mediated by achieved education, which was itself strongly associated with the likelihood of being vaccinated.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; cognition; cognitive performance; long-term effects; mental health.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Education of female and male participants of the study. The codes 4 and 8 correspond to Complete secondary education or higher vocational training (A-levels or diploma), and master’s degree, respectively.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Severity of the course of COVID-19 in the female and male participants of the study. Codes 1 to 6 correspond to “No symptoms,” “Like mild flu,” “Like normal flu,” “Like severe flu,” “hospitalized,” and “at ICU,” respectively.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Duration of COVID-19 and time passed since start of the COVID. The left histogram does not show 21 (1.02%) of the participants, including 17 (1.26%) women and 4 (0.56%) men, who reported a duration of COVID longer than 100 days.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Correlation of being infected with SARS-CoV-2 with health and cognitive performance. Schemes a–e show the direct and indirect effects (path coefficients) of health and COVID-related variables on cognitive performance. The scheme f shows similar effects on the current sickness of the participants. The number of asterisks (one, two, or three) indicates their significance (0.05, 0.01, and 0.001, respectively). A positive path coefficient (green arrow) indicates that, for example, older participants reported a more severe COVID-19 course than younger participants.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Correlation of COVID-19 severity with health and cognitive performance. For legend, see Fig. 4.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Correlation of vaccination and long-term sickness with current sickness and cognitive performance. For legend, see Fig. 4.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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