| Title: | Pre-pandemic cognitive function and COVID-19 mortality: prospective cohort study |
| Journal: | European Journal of Epidemiology |
| Published: | 24 Apr 2021 |
| Pubmed: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33893922/ |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-021-00743-7 |
| URL: | https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10654-021-00743-7.pdf |
Publication 5601
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Abstract
Poorer performance on standard tests of pre-morbid cognitive function is related to an elevated risk of death from lower respiratory tract infections but the link with coronavirus (COVID-19) mortality is untested. Participants in UK Biobank, aged 40 to 69 years at study induction (2006-10), were administered a reaction time test, an indicator of information processing speed, and also had their verbal-numeric reasoning assessed. Between April 1st and September 23rd 2020 there were 388 registry-confirmed deaths (138 women) ascribed to COVID-19 in 494,932 individuals (269,602 women) with a reaction time test result, and 125 such deaths (38 women) in the subgroup of 180,198 people (97,794 women) with data on verbal-numeric reasoning. In analyses adjusted for age, sex, and ethnicity, a one standard deviation slower reaction time was related to a higher rate of death from COVID-19 (hazard ratio; 95% confidence interval: 1.18; 1.09, 1.28), as was a one standard deviation disadvantage on the verbal-numeric reasoning test (1.32; 1.09, 1.59). While there was some attenuation in these relationships after adjustment for additional covariates which included socio-economic status and lifestyle factors, the two pre-pandemic indicators of cognitive function continued to be related to COVID-19 mortality.</p>
3 Authors
- George David Batty
- Ian J. Deary
- Catharine R. Gale
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