Research: COVID-19 Can Cause Cognitive Damage Equal to 20 Years of Ageing

Research has shown that people hospitalized with COVID-19 are more likely to develop cognitive problems, namely losing 10 IQ points that are tantamount to 20 years of ageing.

According to NewScientist, researchers at the University of Cambridge conducted an analysis on 46 people who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 sometime between March and July in 2020. The participants were made to take part in cognitive tests over a period of six months after contracting the infection. The results were contrasted with that of over 66,000 from the general population.

Researchers found that the individuals previously hospitalized with COVID-19 scored poorer than their counterparts in the general public on understanding the relationships between ideas and methodological cognition, while also exhibiting slackening processing speeds. These findings add to a growing body of research which reported that COVID-19 leads to cognitive and psychological issues such as fatigue, brain fog, and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

In a statement, Imperial College’s Adam Hampshire said, “Around 40,000 people have been through intensive care with COVID-19 in England alone and many more will have been very sick, but not admitted to hospital.” He added, “This means there is a large number of people out there still experiencing problems with cognition many months later.”