Post‐covid cognitive performance in subjects at risk of developing dementia in Uruguay

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundthe study of the medium and long‐term consequences of coronavirus infection (SARS‐CoV‐2) is of great relevance from the clinical and public health perspective. Recent evidence has shown that patients may present cognitive complaints after overcoming the acute stage of infection, particularly memory disturbances. Although significant progress has been made in the knowledge of this sequel, the studies are generally limited by small sample sizes, cognitive screening techniques with ceiling effects, and samples with healthy subjects without comorbidities, among others. The objective of this study is to compare the cognitive performance of subjects at risk of developing dementia with and without a history of SARS‐CoV‐2 in Uruguay.Methodparticipants from the LatAm FINGERS Uruguay Project were included. Performance in the different cognitive tests (symbol‐digit, trail making A, trail making B, free and cued selective remingind test) included in the project protocol was compared between the participants with and without a history of covid infection.Results27 subjects with a history of covid infection prior to baseline cognitive assessment and 62 subjects without a history of covid infection were analyzed. None of the participants had serious complications or requiring hospitalization due to SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. The performance of both groups in attentional, executive and memory tests was compared. There were no significant differences between groups.Conclusionsthe impact of covid on cognition is still a controversial topic. In our sample of subjects at risk of dementia, there was no evidence of impaired cognitive performance due to SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. More studies in underrepresented populations with larger samples are needed to address this issue.