COVID-19 Illness and Cognitive Functioning in a Community- Dwelling Sample of Adults

cognition subjective cognition perceived stress long-haul COVID-19 Objective: Recent research illuminates a wide range of outcomes associated with COVID-19 illness, including neurological and cognitive dysfunction. While these associations have most often been examined among hospitalized patients, emerging research suggests that cognitive impairments following COVID-19 illness may not be exclusive to hospitalized or severely ill populations. The current study investigates the impact of COVID-19 infection on objective and subjective cognitive functioning among a sample of community-dwelling adults. Method: Cross-sectional data were collected online from a community sample of adults aged 19-67 years (N = 114; M age = 41.91 years) to examine the associations between those with and without COVID-19 illness history on objective and subjective measures of cognitive functioning. Results: There were no significant differences between those with a history of COVID-19 infection (n = 57) and those without a history of COV-ID-19 infection (n = 57) in performance on digit span, digit symbol, choice reaction time, Stroop, and the N-back cognitive tasks. Within the COVID-19 positive group, individuals with long-haul (i.e., persisting four or more weeks) COVID-19 symptoms reported significantly greater impairments in subjective cognition compared to those with short-term COVID-19 symptoms. Conclusions: The current findings provide important insight into the impact of COVID-19 on cognitive outcomes among adults drawn from the community. These results highlight the necessity to continue investigating potential factors that impact the course of COVID-19 illness in diverse populations with varying degrees of viral symptomatology.