COVID-19 infection may negatively impact work performance post-recovery: study – National | Globalnews.ca

A new study shows that people who have had COVID-19 often experience memory, attention and concentration problems even after recovering from their illness. These problems have also been associated with decreased self-ratings of job performance, as well as increased intentions to voluntarily leave one’s current job.

The University of Waterloo-led study, published on May 25, 2022, collected data from a sample of 94 full-time working adults — 45 had recently recovered from COVID-19 while 49 had not contracted the illness.

“I was doing this research because I was watching news coverage of long COVID and in particular the cognitive aspects of long COVID…And I thought, well, that’s got to be bad for you or your ability to do your job. That’s got to hurt you at work,” said James Beck, an associate professor in Waterloo’s psychology department and co-author of the study

Long COVID refers to any of the more than two dozens symptoms that linger, recur or first appear at least one month after a coronavirus infection. These can affect all parts of the body and may include fatigue, shortness of breath, brain fog and blood clots.

Beck said the research was conducted in the summer of 2020 to study the impact that brain fog caused by COVID-19 has on people’s work performance.

Compared to the group of people that had never had COVID-19, the group who had COVID-19 reported more cognitive failures at work — which are defined as problems with memory, attention and action, Beck explained.

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“These results may have important implications for managers and organizations more broadly,” Beck said.

“Individuals returning to work after contracting COVID-19 may experience difficulties returning to their pre-COVID-19 level of performance, and accommodations may be necessary. These accommodations might include reducing workloads, extending deadlines, or providing flexible work arrangements.”

A cognitive behavioral neurologist, Andrew E. Budson, said in a Harvard Health Blog published in March last year that he’d heard many individuals complaining of “brain fog” after a COVID-19 infection.

He explained that “brain fog is not a medical or scientific term; it is used by individuals to describe how they feel when their thinking is sluggish, fuzzy, and not sharp.”

Budson stated that there are many ways that COVID-19 can damage the brain. It can cause strokes and a lack of oxygen to the brain, “but other effects may be more subtle,” such as having memory or concentration problems.

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Budson explained that COVID-19 may have long-term effects on organs that don’t just include the brain, but also the lungs, heart or kidneys.

He said the direct effects can have lingering symptoms including fatigue, body aches, inability to exercise, headache, and difficulty sleeping.

“Some of these problems may be due to permanent damage to their lungs, heart, kidneys, or other organs. Damage to these organs — or even just the symptoms by themselves — can impair thinking and memory and cause brain fog,” Budson wrote.

“For example, how can you think clearly if you’re feeling fatigued and your body is aching? How can you concentrate if you were up half the night and awoke with a headache?” he added.

Beck said that he wasn’t surprised by the cognitive impacts of COVID-19, but what stood out for him from the study is that people who had brain fog because of COVID-19 didn’t necessarily get better with time.

“I anticipated seeing a relationship between how long it had been and their cognitive failure symptoms, which would indicate to me that you’re getting better over time,” explained Beck.

“But we didn’t observe that correlation…What we cannot say is that we found any evidence that people were getting better over time,” he added

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A professor of bioethics and global health at the University of Toronto, Kerry Bowman, said people and researchers in general haven’t taken a good, hard look at the way long COVID impacts cognition.

“We have to have workplaces that are fair and inclusive. And I do think a challenge for employers will be to recognize that there are going to be people that are going to have more of a recovery time and may be challenged by this,” said Bowman.

He said workplaces need to be aware that people struggling with long COVID, including cognitive effects, can be in their 20s and 30s.

“That may surprise people. They may expect the cohort of people that have struggled with long COVID to be much older…And what we’re seeing with long COVID is in fact, many of the people are quite young and healthy otherwise,” Bowman said.

“We need to look at that medically, but we also need to look at that from a psychological, emotional and employment point of view, as well as an ethical point of view. How do we create fair workplaces for people that are struggling?” he said.

— with files from The Associated Press