Personalized Computerized Training for Cognitive Dysfunction after COVID-19: A Before-and-After Feasibility Pilot Study

Jon Andoni Duñabeitia (), Francisco Mera, Óscar Baro, Tamen Jadad-Garcia and Alejandro R. Jadad
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Jon Andoni Duñabeitia: AcqVA Aurora Center, Department of Languages and Culture, UiT the Arctic University of Norway, 9019 Tromsø, Norway
Francisco Mera: Unidad Long COVID y Síndromes Postvirales, Blue Health Care, 28036 Madrid, Spain
Óscar Baro: Centro de Salud de Galapagar, 28260 Madrid, Spain
Tamen Jadad-Garcia: Vivenxia Group, Beverly Hills, CA 90210, USA
Alejandro R. Jadad: Centre for Digital Therapeutics, Toronto, ON M5G 2C4, Canada

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-10

Abstract: The current pilot study was set to evaluate the feasibility and potential benefit of a personalized computerized cognitive training (CCT) intervention to improve cognitive function among people living with post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC). Seventy three adults who self-reported cognitive dysfunction more than 3 months after a diagnosis of COVID-19 took part in an 8-week training study. Participants’ general cognitive function was assessed before they completed as many cognitive daily training sessions as they wished during an 8-week period, using a personalized CCT application at home. At the end of this period, participants repeated the general cognitive function assessment. The differences between the scores at 8 weeks and baseline in five cognitive domains (attention, memory, coordination, perception, reasoning), complemented with analyses of the changes based on the participants’ age, training time, self-reported health level at baseline and time since the initial COVID-19 infection. Participants had significant cognitive dysfunction and self-reported negative health levels at baseline. Most of the participants obtained higher scores after CCT in each of the domains as compared with baseline. The magnitude of this score increase was high across domains. It is concluded that a self-administered CCT based on gamified cognitive tasks could be an effective way to ameliorate cognitive dysfunction in persons with PASC. The ClinicalTrials.gov identifier is NCT05571852.

Keywords: post-acute sequelae of COVID-19; Long COVID; computerized cognitive training; pandemics; digital therapeutics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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