Subjective cognitive complaints and emotional symptoms after COVID-19: preliminary data in a sample of Puerto Rican...

This exploratory study examined relationships between predisposing factors (age, pre-morbid medical conditions, educational attainment), COVID-19 disease severity indicators (hospitalization status, symptom burden, symptom duration), and self-reported cognitive complaints and emotional symptoms in Puerto Rican adults with prior COVID-19.

Fifty-nine Puerto Rican adults (71.2% female; M age = 39.27 years, SD = 12.21) with a confirmed history of COVID-19 completed an investigator-developed sociodemographic questionnaire, the Neurobehavioral Symptom Inventory (NSI), and the Neuro-QoL v2.0 Cognitive Function-Short Form Spanish via an online platform. Non-parametric analyses included Spearman correlations, Mann-Whitney U tests, and Kruskal-Wallis tests with effect sizes. A sensitivity power analysis estimated the smallest detectable effects.

Symptom burden was the strongest correlate of self-reported cognitive and emotional symptoms, correlating positively with NSI Total (rho = 0.651, p < .001) and NSI Affective (rho = 0.637, p < .001) scores, and negatively with Neuro-QoL (rho = -0.329, p = .011). Pre-morbid conditions were associated with worse NSI Total (rho = 0.298, p = .022) and NSI Cognitive (rho = 0.344, p = .008). Age and education showed no significant associations. Cognitive complaints were strongly associated with emotional symptoms, holding across instruments and after adjusting for symptom burden. Hospitalization comparisons showed small-to-medium but nonsignificant effects, inconclusive given the small hospitalized subgroup.

In this Puerto Rican sample, COVID-19 symptom burden and pre-morbid health status were the primary correlates of cognitive difficulties, which were closely intertwined with emotional symptoms. These exploratory findings offer preliminary empirical evidence to inform future research in Puerto Rico.