B - 20 The Role of Fatigue, Anxiety, Depression, and Stress (FADS) in Executive Functioning Following COVID-19

Abstract Objective Evidence indicates COVID-19 may residually impact executive functioning (EF). Despite disproportionately higher rates of COVID-19 amongst people of the global majority (PGM), there is limited research on ethnoracial disparities in neuropsychological and psychiatric outcomes following COVID-19. This study compares fatigue, anxiety, depression, and stress (FADS), as well as neurocognitive complaints (NC) and neuropsychological functioning in PGM versus non-PGM groups with and without a history of COVID-19. We expected PGM to report more severe FADS with a COVID-19 history than non-PGM, and for FADS to relate to task performance. Method Ninety-nine participants without a history of COVID-19 (52 PGM, 47 non-PGM) and sixty-six participants with a history of COVID-19 (22 PGM, 44 non-PGM) completed neuropsychological measures (e.g., WAIS-IV Digit Span, Oral Trail Making Test, WCST-64, and D-KEFS Color Word Interference), the Everyday Cognition Scale (scale of NCs), the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, and the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory. Results ANOVA revealed a main PGM-affiliation effect for FADS. Although no interaction between COVID-19 and PGM-affiliation on EF were found, significant interactions were demonstrated in anxiety (p = 0.023) and stress (p = 0.007) and were marginal for depression (p = 0.06), but not fatigue. Stress significantly covaried EF performance. Conclusions While there may not be significant interactions between ethnoracial identity and COVID-19 on objective EF tasks, NCs, anxiety, depression, and stress appear to vary according to ethnoracial identity depending on COVID-19 history. Therefore, PGM may be more affected on EF when experiencing elevated FADS. Future research should aim to inform treatment for those experiencing NC and psychiatric distress following COVID-19.