Persistent Health and Cognitive Impairments up to Four Years Post-COVID-19 in Young Students: The Impact of Virus Variants and Vaccination Timing
<b>Background:</b> The long-term consequences of COVID-19 infection are becoming increasingly evident in recent studies. This repeated cross-sectional study aimed to explore the long-term health and cognitive effects of COVID-19, focusing on how virus variants, vaccination, illness sever...
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2024-12-01
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| author | Ashkan Latifi Jaroslav Flegr |
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| description | <b>Background:</b> The long-term consequences of COVID-19 infection are becoming increasingly evident in recent studies. This repeated cross-sectional study aimed to explore the long-term health and cognitive effects of COVID-19, focusing on how virus variants, vaccination, illness severity, and time since infection impact post-COVID-19 outcomes. <b>Methods:</b> We examined three cohorts of university students (<i>N</i> = 584) and used non-parametric methods to assess correlations of various health and cognitive variables with SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 severity, vaccination status, time since infection, time since vaccination, and virus variants. <b>Results:</b> Our results suggest that some health and cognitive impairments may persist, with some even appearing to progressively worsen—particularly fatigue in women and memory in men—up to four years post-infection. The data further indicate that the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 variant may have the most significant long-term impact, while the Omicron variant appears to have the least. Interestingly, the severity of the acute illness was not correlated with the variant of SARS-CoV-2. The analysis also revealed that individuals who contracted COVID-19 after vaccination had better health and cognitive outcomes compared to those infected before vaccination. <b>Conclusions</b>: Overall, our results indicate that even in young individuals who predominantly experienced only mild forms of the infection, a gradual decline in health and fitness can occur over a span of four years post-infection. Notably, some negative trends—at least in men—only began to stabilize or even reverse during the fourth year, whereas in women, these trends showed no such improvement. These findings suggest that the long-term public health impacts of COVID-19 may be more severe and affect a much broader population than is commonly assumed. |
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| institution | Kabale University |
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| spelling | doaj-art-0861e3a1429b43a18403870df6e5789d2025-01-24T13:23:54ZengMDPI AGBiomedicines2227-90592024-12-011316910.3390/biomedicines13010069Persistent Health and Cognitive Impairments up to Four Years Post-COVID-19 in Young Students: The Impact of Virus Variants and Vaccination TimingAshkan Latifi0Jaroslav Flegr1Laboratory of Evolutionary Biology, Department of Philosophy and History of Sciences, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, 128 00 Prague, Czech RepublicLaboratory of Evolutionary Biology, Department of Philosophy and History of Sciences, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná 7, 128 00 Prague, Czech Republic<b>Background:</b> The long-term consequences of COVID-19 infection are becoming increasingly evident in recent studies. This repeated cross-sectional study aimed to explore the long-term health and cognitive effects of COVID-19, focusing on how virus variants, vaccination, illness severity, and time since infection impact post-COVID-19 outcomes. <b>Methods:</b> We examined three cohorts of university students (<i>N</i> = 584) and used non-parametric methods to assess correlations of various health and cognitive variables with SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 severity, vaccination status, time since infection, time since vaccination, and virus variants. <b>Results:</b> Our results suggest that some health and cognitive impairments may persist, with some even appearing to progressively worsen—particularly fatigue in women and memory in men—up to four years post-infection. The data further indicate that the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 variant may have the most significant long-term impact, while the Omicron variant appears to have the least. Interestingly, the severity of the acute illness was not correlated with the variant of SARS-CoV-2. The analysis also revealed that individuals who contracted COVID-19 after vaccination had better health and cognitive outcomes compared to those infected before vaccination. <b>Conclusions</b>: Overall, our results indicate that even in young individuals who predominantly experienced only mild forms of the infection, a gradual decline in health and fitness can occur over a span of four years post-infection. Notably, some negative trends—at least in men—only began to stabilize or even reverse during the fourth year, whereas in women, these trends showed no such improvement. These findings suggest that the long-term public health impacts of COVID-19 may be more severe and affect a much broader population than is commonly assumed.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/13/1/69SARS-CoV-2cognitionmental healthlong-term effectslong COVID |
| spellingShingle | Ashkan Latifi Jaroslav Flegr Persistent Health and Cognitive Impairments up to Four Years Post-COVID-19 in Young Students: The Impact of Virus Variants and Vaccination Timing Biomedicines SARS-CoV-2 cognition mental health long-term effects long COVID |
| title | Persistent Health and Cognitive Impairments up to Four Years Post-COVID-19 in Young Students: The Impact of Virus Variants and Vaccination Timing |
| title_full | Persistent Health and Cognitive Impairments up to Four Years Post-COVID-19 in Young Students: The Impact of Virus Variants and Vaccination Timing |
| title_fullStr | Persistent Health and Cognitive Impairments up to Four Years Post-COVID-19 in Young Students: The Impact of Virus Variants and Vaccination Timing |
| title_full_unstemmed | Persistent Health and Cognitive Impairments up to Four Years Post-COVID-19 in Young Students: The Impact of Virus Variants and Vaccination Timing |
| title_short | Persistent Health and Cognitive Impairments up to Four Years Post-COVID-19 in Young Students: The Impact of Virus Variants and Vaccination Timing |
| title_sort | persistent health and cognitive impairments up to four years post covid 19 in young students the impact of virus variants and vaccination timing |
| topic | SARS-CoV-2 cognition mental health long-term effects long COVID |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9059/13/1/69 |
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