The association between objective cognitive measures and ecological-functional outcomes in COVID-19

Marcella Ottonello; Elena Fiabane; Edoardo Nicolò Aiello; Marina Rita Manera; Francesca Spada; Caterina Pistarini

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.903697

The association between objective cognitive measures and ecological-functional outcomes in COVID-19

Front Psychol. 2022 Nov 1:13:903697. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.903697. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Marcella Ottonello¹, Elena Fiabane¹, Edoardo Nicolò Aiello², Marina Rita Manera³, Francesca Spada¹, Caterina Pistarini⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine of Genova Nervi Institute, Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, Genova, Italy.
² PhD Program in Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca, Monza, Italy.
³ Psychology Unit of Pavia Institute, Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, Pavia, Italy.
⁴ Department of Neurorehabilitation of Pavia Institute, Istituti Clinici Scientifici Maugeri IRCCS, Pavia, Italy.

Abstract

Background: Cognitive dysfunctions, both subjective and detectable at psychometric testing, may follow SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, the ecological-functional relevance of such objective deficits is currently under-investigated. This study thus aimed at investigating the association between objective cognitive measures and both physical and cognitive, ecological-functional outcomes in post-COVID-19.

Methods: Forty-two COVID-19-recovered individuals were administered the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). The Functional Independence Measure (FIM) was adopted to assess functional-ecological, motor/physical (FIM-Motor) and cognitive (FIM-Cognitive) outcomes at admission (T0) and discharge (T1).

Results: When predicting both T0/T1 FIM-total and-Motor scores based on MMSE/MoCA scores, premorbid risk for cognitive decline (RCD) and disease-related features, no model yielded a significant fit. However, the MoCA - but not the MMSE significantly predicted T0/T1 FIM-Cognitive scores. The MoCA was significantly related only to T0/T1 FIM-Cognitive Memory items.

Discussion: Cognitive measures are not associated with physical/motor everyday-life outcomes in post-COVID-19 patients. The MoCA may provide an ecological estimate of cognitive functioning in this population.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; cognitive screening; ecological validity; functional independence measures; neuropsychology.