Health Talk | How real is cognitive impairment in Covid survivors?
Hindustan TimesThe overall incidence of cognitive impairment among Covid-19 survivors aged 60 years and older was 19.1% at two-and-a-half years after infection, according to a new analysis published in Nature, which highlights the emerging evidence that suggests neurological and other post-acute sequelae of Covid-19 can persist beyond or develop following SARS-CoV-2 infection. For the Nature study, the researchers investigated cognitive changes over a period of two-and-a-half years among 1,245 individuals aged 60 years or older who survived infection with the original SARS-CoV-2 strain in Wuhan, China, and 358 uninfected spouses. “We show that the overall incidence of cognitive impairment among older Covid-19 survivors was 19.1% at 2.5 years after infection and hospitalisation,” said researchers in the paper. “We identified pronounced cognitive slowing in patients with post covid conditions, which distinguished them from age-matched healthy individuals who previously had symptomatic Covid-19 but did not manifest PCC.