TY - JOUR
T1 - Co-occurrence of memory impairment and fatigue distinguishes post COVID from pandemic-related health effects in the 4-year CON-VINCE cohort study
AU - Bulaev, Dmitry
AU - Rauschenberger, Armin
AU - Fritz, Joëlle V.
AU - Tsurkalenko, Olena
AU - Kolodkin, Alexey
AU - Vaillant, Michel
AU - Klucken, Jochen
AU - Krüger, Rejko
AU - Lorentz, Victoria
AU - Bocquet, Valéry
AU - Mtimet, Saïda
AU - Roland, Olivia
AU - Kofanova, Olga
AU - Aouali, Nassera
AU - Menster, Myriam
AU - Alexandre, Myriam
AU - Valenti, Mesele
AU - Richard, Ilsé
AU - Marques, Guilherme
AU - Contesotto, Gessica
AU - Gamio, Carlos
AU - Schritz, Anna
AU - Mendibide, Alexia
AU - Saracino, Sabrina
AU - Theresine, Maud
AU - Ferrari, Angelo
AU - Verschueren, Charlène
AU - Esteves, Daniela Valoura
AU - Turner, Jonathan
AU - Trouet, Johanna
AU - Thien, Hermann
AU - Sokolowska, Kate
AU - Snoeck, Chantal
AU - Skrozic, Amna
AU - Simon, Florian
AU - Schröder, Valerie
AU - Schmitt, Margaux
AU - Sausy, Aurélie
AU - Santos, Bruno
AU - Sandt, Estelle
AU - Remark, Lucie
AU - Plesseria, Jean Marc
AU - Pexaras, Achilleas
AU - Perquin, Magali
AU - Pavelka, Lukas
AU - Pauly, Laure
AU - Pauly, Claire
AU - Ollert, Markus
AU - Neumann, Mareike
AU - Mériaux, Sophie
AU - Munsch, Maeva
AU - Marques, Tainà
AU - Marchese, Monica
AU - Lumley, Andrew
AU - Lemaire, Morgane
AU - Lambert, Pauline
AU - Kler, Stéphanie
AU - Iserentant, Gilles
AU - Hübschen, Judith
AU - Hundt, Alexander
AU - Huiart, Laetitia
AU - Hilger, Christiane
AU - Henry, Margaux
AU - Henry, Estelle
AU - Hemedan, Ahmed
AU - Hefele, Lisa
AU - Hansen, Maxime
AU - Hanff, Anne Marie
AU - Hamot, Gaël
AU - Graas, Jérôme
AU - Georges, Laura
AU - Gantenbein, Manon
AU - Lopes, Ana Festas
AU - Ferrand, Jean Yves
AU - Dording, Claire
AU - Domingues, Olivia
AU - De Witt, Brian
AU - Counson, Manuel
AU - Charpentier, Emilie
AU - Charalambous, Eleftheria
AU - Brenner, Dirk
AU - Betsou, Fay
AU - Bellora, Camille
AU - Beckers, Lucrèce
AU - Beaupain, Nadia
AU - Beaumont, Katy
AU - Bahlawane, Christelle
AU - Assele-Kama, Ariane
AU - Ammerlaan, Wim
AU - Aguayo, Gloria
AU - Acharya, Geeta
AU - CON-VINCE/ORCHESTRA Study Consortium
N1 - Funding:
The CON-VINCE Study was funded by the National Research Fund Luxembourg (FNR
14716281/CON-VINCE/Kruger) and the André Losch Foundation (Luxembourg). The ORCHESTRA project
has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant
agreement No 101016167. The COMMUTE project has received funding from the Horizon Europe research
program under agreement No 101136957.
© 2025. The Author(s).
PY - 2025/10/27
Y1 - 2025/10/27
N2 - A major challenge in diagnosing post COVID lies in differentiating symptoms following a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection from those that may also occur in uninfected individuals (post COVID mimics) and be associated with a broader impact of the pandemic. The WHO post COVID definition was applied to the Luxembourgish longitudinal CON-VINCE cohort, where SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed via either a positive RT-qPCR or a serology test. Risk factor analysis was conducted on 1,865 individuals. Female gender, lower resilience, greater loneliness, and a higher number of comorbidities were associated with symptoms persistence. The symptomatology and comorbidity profiles of 559 participants (including 50 post COVID and 66 post COVID mimics) were investigated. Two distinct clusters of persistent symptoms were identified: (1) depression with anxiety, present in both infected and non-infected groups, and (2) memory impairment with fatigue, unique to the post COVID group. Therefore, presence of both memory impairment and fatigue may help differentiate post COVID patients from post COVID mimics. Yet, verification that memory impairment was newly developed was not possible, as this symptom was not recorded at baseline. Our findings suggest that future studies should consider factors affecting development of persistent post COVID-like symptoms observed in individuals that were never infected.
AB - A major challenge in diagnosing post COVID lies in differentiating symptoms following a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection from those that may also occur in uninfected individuals (post COVID mimics) and be associated with a broader impact of the pandemic. The WHO post COVID definition was applied to the Luxembourgish longitudinal CON-VINCE cohort, where SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed via either a positive RT-qPCR or a serology test. Risk factor analysis was conducted on 1,865 individuals. Female gender, lower resilience, greater loneliness, and a higher number of comorbidities were associated with symptoms persistence. The symptomatology and comorbidity profiles of 559 participants (including 50 post COVID and 66 post COVID mimics) were investigated. Two distinct clusters of persistent symptoms were identified: (1) depression with anxiety, present in both infected and non-infected groups, and (2) memory impairment with fatigue, unique to the post COVID group. Therefore, presence of both memory impairment and fatigue may help differentiate post COVID patients from post COVID mimics. Yet, verification that memory impairment was newly developed was not possible, as this symptom was not recorded at baseline. Our findings suggest that future studies should consider factors affecting development of persistent post COVID-like symptoms observed in individuals that were never infected.
KW - Cohort
KW - Long COVID
KW - Long COVID mimics
KW - PASC
KW - Post COVID syndrome
KW - SARS-CoV-2
KW - Luxembourg/epidemiology
KW - Pandemics
KW - Anxiety/epidemiology
KW - COVID-19/complications
KW - Fatigue/epidemiology
KW - SARS-CoV-2/isolation & purification
KW - Humans
KW - Memory Disorders/epidemiology
KW - Middle Aged
KW - Male
KW - Depression/epidemiology
KW - Female
KW - Adult
KW - Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome
KW - Comorbidity
KW - Risk Factors
KW - Aged
KW - Longitudinal Studies
KW - Cohort Studies
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105020246131
UR - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41145523/
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-025-19984-7
DO - 10.1038/s41598-025-19984-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 41145523
AN - SCOPUS:105020246131
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 15
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
IS - 1
M1 - 37381
ER -