Cognitive impairment and functional change in COVID-19 patients undergoing inpatient rehabilitation.

Publication Type	Academic Article
Authors	Patel R, Savrides I, Cahalan C, Doulatani G, O'Dell M, Toglia J, Jaywant A
Journal	Int J Rehabil Res
Volume	44
Issue	3
Pagination	285-288
Date Published	09/01/2021
ISSN	1473-5660
Keywords	Activities of Daily Living, COVID-19, Cognitive Dysfunction
Abstract	Cognitive impairment is increasingly recognized as a sequela of COVID-19. It is unknown how cognition changes and relates to functional gain during inpatient rehabilitation. We administered the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) at admission to 77 patients undergoing inpatient rehabilitation for COVID-19 in a large US academic medical center. Forty-five patients were administered the MoCA at discharge. Functional gain was assessed by change in the quality indicator for self-care (QI-SC). In the full sample, 80.5% of patients exhibited cognitive impairment on admission, which was associated with prior delirium. Among 45 patients with retest data, there were significant improvements in MoCA and QI-SC. QI-SC score gain was higher in patients who made clinically meaningful changes on the MoCA, an association that persisted after accounting for age and delirium history. Cognitive impairment is frequent among COVID-19 patients, but improves over time and is associated with functional gain during inpatient rehabilitation.
DOI	10.1097/MRR.0000000000000483
PubMed ID	34156035