Long Covid Research

Goal: to identify neurocognitive and balance performance assessments that are best associated with symptoms categories in patients with Long Covid.

The medical community has yet to develop effective interventions that provide relief to patients with Long COVID. There are no standardized scales of severity or intervention targets for Long COVID. We recently found that post-concussion assessment tools are sensitive to Long COVID. However, unlike research methods, it is important that a clinical assessment for Long COVID patient be brief and effective. The purpose of this investigation was to identify neurocognitive and balance performance assessments that are best associated with symptom categories in patients with Long COVID. b Severity of each symptom was assessed from 0-6 and a symptom score was calculated for the total inventory and each category—Somatic, Cognitive, Sleep, and Affective. Symptom scores were associated with subtests of the ANAM—Simple Reaction Time (SRT), Procedural Reaction Time (PRT), and Repeated Simple Reaction Time (RSRT)—and force platform measures during the Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction on Balance (CITSIB) using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Total Symptom Score, Somatic, and Sleep symptom scores were moderately correlated to age and sex matched standard scores from the PRT (r=0.50-0.58), and low to moderate correlations to RSRT (r=0.30-0.61). Total Symptom score was moderately correlated with the major axis of the 95% ellipse during Eyes Closed Hard Surface balance. The correlations indicate a moderately strong construct validity on level, or severity, of disability due to Long COVID. Establishing simple and objective performance measures to augment the common intake symptom questionnaires may add a substantial benefit to understanding the severity of disability and provide an objective quantitative intervention target to measure before and after therapy for Long COVID patients.