Did you have pneumonia during Covid infection? You may be at a great risk of dementia, says study - Economic Times

The long term impact of Covid is truly taking a new meaning. According to a recent study conducted by the University of Missouri (MU) researchers, patients who suffered from pneumonia during their Covid infection stand a greater risk of developing dementia. It was found that patients who are older than 70 were more prone to this after-effect than others.

The researchers examined medical records of 1.4 billion encounters that happened before July 31 last year in Cerner Real-World Data and they chose patients hospitalized with pneumonia for more than 24 hours. Among 10,403 patients who had pneumonia following Covid, new on-set of dementia was found in 312 patients. The study was published in the journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases.

Another set of 10, 403 with non-Covid pneumonia were also examined and it was found that around 263 patients displayed signs of dementia. Therefore, people with post-Covid pneumonia have greater chances of developing dementia, than those who had non-Covid pneumonia.

Dementia, for those of you who do not know, is an ailment that impacts memory, and cognitive abilities, affecting individuals’ capacity to perform everyday tasks.

The trend in post-Covid dementia shows that while memory, and ability to perform day-to-day tasks is affected, the patients’ understanding of time and location remained relatively intact. It has been found that the average time interval between the Covid infection and the onset of dementia is 182 days.

The scientists also found that the median time interval between infection and dementia diagnosis was 182 days for Covid-19 patients.

Apart from dementia, several other psychological effects and strain on the brain have also been noticed following a Covid infection. The most common after effect is brain fog, which also hinders cognitive abilities, and causes memory loss to a certain extent.