AUTHOR=Ottonello Marcella , Fiabane Elena , Aiello Edoardo Nicolò , Manera Marina Rita , Spada Francesca , Pistarini Caterina 

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

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.903697

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.903697

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p>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 <italic>post-</italic>COVID-19.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>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).</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>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.</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>Cognitive measures are not associated with physical/motor everyday-life outcomes in <italic>post</italic>-COVID-19 patients. The MoCA may provide an ecological estimate of cognitive functioning in this population.</p></sec>