{"doi":"10.3389/fpsyg.2022.770459","title":"Cognitive Impairment in Non-critical, Mild-to-Moderate COVID-19 Survivors","abstract":"Importance Previous studies of post-acute COVID-19 syndrome have focused on critical cases with severe disease. However, most cases are mild to moderate in disease severity. Objective We aimed to examine cognitive outcomes in cases of non-critical, mild-to-moderate COVID-19. Design, Setting, and Participants: In this cross-sectional study, we enrolled 72 adults aged 22 to 65 years in Central Texas who had non-critical, mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infection between 13 January 2021 and 20 April 2021. Main Outcomes and Measures We remotely administered cognitive-behavioral testing to determine the frequency of cognitive impairment and examine demographic, clinical, and psychosocial contributors to impairment. Results The frequency of objective cognitive impairment was 40%. The largest number of participants (24%) showed impairment on a measure of executive functioning. Attention and processing speed was more impaired in males ( OR = 1.5, 95%CI = 0.23–2.9). Males endorsed lower adherence to social distancing guidelines ( U = 590, p = 0.01), which was in turn associated with cognitive impairment across participants ( r = −0.30, p = 0.01). Younger age was correlated with impairment ( r = −0.26, p = 0.03) but was also associated with racial/ethnic minority status ( r = −0.31, p = 0.01) and increased psychological symptoms ( p < 0.04). Greater number of COVID-19 symptoms was correlated with lower subjective cognitive function ( r = −0.38, p = 0.001) as well as psychosocial function ( r > 0.24, p < 0.05). Moderate COVID-19 severity was associated with attention/processing speed impairment ( r = 0.27, p = 0.03), increased pain ( r = 0.31, p = 0.01), and higher number of COVID-19 symptoms ( r = 0.32, p = 0.01). Conclusion and Relevance Mild or moderate COVID-19 infection may be associated with cognitive impairments, especially in the domain of executive functioning. A subgroup of younger individuals may be more vulnerable to cognitive and psychosocial effects of COVID-19. Highlights Question: How frequent is cognitive impairment among non-critical, mild-to-moderate COVID-19 survivors? Findings In this cross-sectional study of 72 adults, 40% demonstrated cognitive impairment, particularly in executive function. Meaning Neurologic sequelae, such as cognitive impairment, may be common following COVID-19 infection.","journal":"Frontiers in Psychology","year":2022,"id":234998,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":87,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9432,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":851794,"name":"Kimberly Lewis","orcid":"0000-0002-2590-8627","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":851795,"name":"Eliana R Gill","orcid":"0000-0002-5183-9338","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":307382,"name":"Shelli R. Kesler","orcid":"0000-0002-0515-7942","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":707451,"name":"Ashley M. Henneghan","orcid":"0000-0002-6733-1926","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":60,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:21:42.662304Z","pmid":"35250714","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}