%0 Journal Article
%A Del Brutto, Oscar H
%A Wu, Shasha
%A Mera, Robertino M
%A Costa, Aldo F
%A Recalde, Bettsy Y
%A Issa, Naoum P
%T Cognitive decline among individuals with history of mild symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection: A longitudinal prospective study nested to a population cohort.
%D 2021
%U http://hdl.handle.net/10668/17165
%X Neurological complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection are noticed among critically ill patients soon after disease onset. Information on delayed neurological sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection is nil. Following a longitudinal study design, the occurrence of cognitive decline among individuals with a history of mild symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection was assessed. Stroke- and seizure-free Atahualpa residents aged ≥40 years, who had pre-pandemic cognitive assessments as well as normal brain magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalogram recordings, underwent repeated evaluations 6 months after a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak infection in Atahualpa. Patients requiring oxygen therapy, hospitalization, and those who had initial neurological manifestations were excluded. Cognitive decline was defined as a reduction in the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score between the post-pandemic and pre-pandemic assessments that was ≥4 points greater than the reduction observed between two pre-pandemic MoCAs. The relationship between SARS-CoV-2 infection and cognitive decline was assessed by fitting logistic mixed models for longitudinal data as well as exposure-effect models. Of 93 included individuals (mean age 62.6 ± 11 years), 52 (56%) had a history of mild symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. Post-pandemic MoCA decay was worse in seropositive individuals. Cognitive decline was recognized in 11/52 (21%) seropositive and 1/41 (2%) seronegative individuals. In multivariate analyses, the odds for developing cognitive decline were 18.1 times higher among SARS-CoV-2 seropositive individuals (95% confidence interval 1.75-188; p = 0.015). Exposure-effect models confirmed this association (β = 0.24; 95% confidence interval 0.07-0.41; p = 0.006). This study provides evidence of cognitive decline among individuals with mild symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. The pathogenesis of this complication remains unknown.
%K COVID-19
%K Montreal Cognitive Assessment
%K SARS-CoV-2
%K cognitive decline
%K coronavirus-19
%~