Psychological Correlates of Post-COVID Condition

Abstract

This article deals with psychological correlates of the post-COVID condition - depression, anxiety, and memory problems including remembering and forgetting. The work has a longitudinal character, while it examines the post-COVID condition in a group of participants based on infection of the disease Covid-19. At the same time, participants who never had this disease (N=86, for the 1. measure and N=38 for the 2. measure) are compared with those who were infected with COVID-19 (N=112, for the 1. measure and N=36 for the 2. measure), while participants were separated for analysis in groups based on the time from infection. Group of respondents who were infected within 3 months, from 3-9 months from infection and 9+ months since infecting with the disease. We used tests for comparison, such as the Kruskal Wallis test and multivariate procedures for within-subject and between-subject changes, using Anova for mixed experimental designs. We also determined the risk of being included in a group based on the time of infection with COVID-19 through multinominal logistic regression. We found differences in all variables in general between those infected with COVID-19 and those not. In neuropsychiatric aspects- anxiety and depression were confirmed cyclical features in those who were infected with COVID-19 in time, with the worst value of variables in the group from 3-9 months from infecting with the disease.  In the current memory scale and its subscale, the act of remembering was a value that worsened over time and it was confirmed as an effect of group inclusion.