Widow looking for answers after Quebec man dies in Texas Ironman competition
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Individuals who recovered from COVID-19, including those who no longer had symptoms, exhibited significant “cognitive deficits,” according to a large study out of the U.K.
The research, conducted by academics from Imperial College London, Kings College and the Universities of Cambridge, Southampton and Chicago, aimed to find out how COVID-19 affected mental health and cognition.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from 81,337 participants of the Great British Intelligence Test from January to December 2020. Of those participants, nearly 13,000 reported they had contracted the novel coronavirus.
Importantly, the study said that only 275 participants had completed the intelligence test both before and after contracting COVID-19.
For the rest of the participants, the researchers said they employed a linear model to predict general cognitive performance, or premorbid intelligence, based on age (to the third order), sex, handedness, ethnicity, first language, country of residence, occupational status, and earnings.
“Predicted and observed general performance correlated substantially, providing a proxy measure of premorbid intelligence of comparable performance to common explicit tests such as the National Adult Reading Test,” the study stated.
What’s more, the academics also found that their intelligence estimates for individuals pre-illness indicated that those who contracted COVID-19 were actually likely to have had a “somewhat higher as opposed to lower cognitive ability” before they were sick.
After controlling for those factors, they found that those who had COVID-19 underperformed when compared to those who never contracted the disease.
The cognitive deficits were particularly pronounced for test tasks that involved reasoning, problem solving, spatial planning and target detection, while those who had COVID-19 fared better when they were asked to complete simpler tasks, such as working memory span and emotional processing.
“These results accord with reports of long-COVID, where ‘brain fog’, trouble concentrating and difficulty finding the correct words are common,” the authors noted. “Recovery from COVID-19 infection may be associated with particularly pronounced problems in aspects of higher cognitive or ‘executive’ function.”
The authors said their results appear to show that COVID-19 infection is associated with cognitive deficits that can persist into the recovery phase, such as in cases of long COVID in which symptoms can last for weeks or months after the initial illness.
The level of underperformance was also dependent on the severity of illness in the group who had COVID-19 during the pandemic. The study said those who had been placed on a ventilator during the pandemic exhibited the greatest cognitive deficits, so much so that it equated to a seven-point drop in IQ in a classic intelligence test.
The drop in intelligence among those who had been ventilated was also larger than the deficits observed in patients who had previously suffered a stroke or who reported learning disabilities, according to the paper.
The authors cautioned against drawing firm conclusions about the neurobiological or psychological basis for the intelligence deficits without brain imaging data; however, they said the results should serve as a clarion call for further research on the subject.
The study, “Cognitive deficits in people who have recovered from COVID-19,” was published in the journal The Lancet last week.
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
The world is seeing a near breakdown of international law amid flagrant rule-breaking in Gaza and Ukraine, multiplying armed conflicts, the rise of authoritarianism and huge rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar, Amnesty International warned Wednesday as it published its annual report.
A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would force TikTok's China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban, a contentious move by U.S. lawmakers that's expected to face legal challenges.
People living near a wildfire burning about 15 kilometres southwest of Peace River are being told to evacuate their homes.
The U.S. Senate has passed US$95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden after months of delays and contentious debate over how involved the United States should be in foreign wars.
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.