Co-occurrence of memory impairment and fatigue distinguishes post COVID from pandemic-related health effects in the 4-year CON-VINCE cohort study

A major challenge in diagnosing post COVID lies in differentiating symptoms following a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection from those that may also occur in uninfected individuals (post COVID mimics) and be associated with a broader impact of the pandemic. The WHO post COVID definition was applied to the Luxembourgish longitudinal CON-VINCE cohort, where SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed via either a positive RT-qPCR or a serology test. Risk factor analysis was conducted on 1,865 individuals. Female gender, lower resilience, greater loneliness, and a higher number of comorbidities were associated with symptoms persistence. The symptomatology and comorbidity profiles of 559 participants (including 50 post COVID and 66 post COVID mimics) were investigated. Two distinct clusters of persistent symptoms were identified: (1) depression with anxiety, present in both infected and non-infected groups, and (2) memory impairment with fatigue, unique to the post COVID group. Therefore, presence of both memory impairment and fatigue may help differentiate post COVID patients from post COVID mimics. Yet, verification that memory impairment was newly developed was not possible, as this symptom was not recorded at baseline. Our findings suggest that future studies should consider factors affecting development of persistent post COVID-like symptoms observed in individuals that were never infected.

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Journal
Scientific Reports
Published
2025-10-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-19984-7
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
1.39
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article

Co-occurrence of memory impairment and fatigue distinguishes post COVID from pandemic-related health effects in the 4-year CON-VINCE cohort study

Tainá M. Marques, Armin Rauschenberger, François Ancien, Christophe Trefois et al.
1 citations
Scientific Reports
Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
1.39
article

Co-occurrence of memory impairment and fatigue distinguishes post COVID from pandemic-related health effects in the 4-year CON-VINCE cohort study

Tainá M. Marques, Armin Rauschenberger, François Ancien, Christophe Trefois, Valéry Bocquet, Morgane Lemaire, Émilie Charpentier, Laurent Heirendt, Geeta Acharya, Olga Kofanova, Joëlle V. Fritz, Florian Simon, Bruno Santos, Myriam Alexandre, Wim Ammerlaan, Amna Skrozic, Hermann Thien, Amy Parrish, Myriam Menster, Maura Minelli, Claus Vögele, Manuel Counson, Bernard Weber, Clarissa P. C. Gomes, Christiane Hilger, Anne-Marie Hanff, Sophie B. Mériaux, S. Lamine, Jonathan D. Turner, Annika Lutz, Olivia Domingues, Claire Dording, Victoria Lorentz, Femke Wauters, Jacek Jaroslaw Lebioda, Christelle Bahlawane, Markus W. Ollert, Marc Paul O’Sullivan, Luc Biver, Henry‐Michel Cauchie, Judith M. Hübschen, Lukas Pavelka, Nadia Beaupain, Anna Schritz, Sascha Herzinger, Lara Stute, Alexey Kolodkin, Charlène Verschueren, Friedrich Mühlschlegel, Kate Sokolowska, Jean-Luc Dourson, Jean-Yves Ferrand, Camille Bellora, Antonio Rodríguez, Magali Perquin, Laëtitia Huiart, Katy Beaumont, Jérôme Graas, Achilleas Pexaras, Manon Gantenbein, Piotr Gawron, Patricia Martins Conde, Sabine Michaela Lehmann, Wei Gu, Guilherme Fernandes Marques, Guillaume Fournier, Ahmed Abdelmonem Hemedan, Carlos Ε. A. Coimbra, Christian Penny, Gessica Contesotto, Pinar Alper, Jochen Ohnmacht, Gilles Iserentant, Christiane Schmitt, Béatrice Nicolai, Sabrina Saracino, Stéphanie Kler, Laura Georges, Patrick May, Ariane Assélé-Kama, Sylvie Coito, Leslie Ogorzaly, Enrico Glaab, Anne Kaysen, Margaux Schmitt, C. Meek, Borja Gomez Ramos, Valentin Grouès, Maxime Hansen, Nguyễn Tiến Trung, Jean‐Marc Plesséria, Valerie E. Schröder, Basile Rommes, Fay Betsou, Vyron Gorgogietas, Carlos Vega, Alexandra Schweicher, Jochen Klucken, Thibault Ferrandon, Claire Pauly, Anja Leist, Brian De Witt, Bianca Dragomir, Roberto Sega, Dirk Brenner, Gaël Hamot, Noua Toukourou, Pauline Lambert, Tessy Fautsch, François Massart, Reinhard Schneider, Mareike Neumann, Estelle Henry, Laure Pauly, Guilherme Ramos Meyers, Aurélie Sausy, Thierry Gidenne, Andrew I. Lumley, Olena Tsurkalenko, Maharshi Vyas, Alexander Hundt, Johanna Trouet, Olivia Roland, Lisa Hefele, Venkata Satagopam, Estelle Sandt, Gloria Aguayo, Tamir Abdelrahman, Chantal J. Snoeck, Maud Thérésine, Cécile Walczak, Soumyabrata Ghosh, Alessandra Mousel, Maeva Munsch, Christiane Olesky, Lucie Remark, Stéphane Toll, Emilie Weibel, Tania Zamboni, Sandie Boly, Estelle Coibion, Delphine Collart, Eve Herkenne, Philipp Jägi, Piyapong Khurmin, Marie Leick, Carlos Gamio, Alexia Mendibide, Xinhui Wang, Fédéric Klein, Mesele Valenti, Monica Marchese, João Manuel Loureiro, Lucrèce Beckers, Ana Festas Lopes, Palma di Pinto, Trang Nguyen, Kirsten Rump, Ekaterina Soboleva, A Pasquale, S Mtimet, Eleftheria Charalambous, Tommy Klein, Margaux Henry, Nasséra Aouali, I Richard, Angelo Ferrari, M Pirard, Sneeha Seal, Jean-Yves Servais, Rejko Krüger, Linda Hansen, Daniela Esteves, Serge Schumacher, François Neu, Guillaume Nieser, François Anciens
article en
1 citations

Abstract

A major challenge in diagnosing post COVID lies in differentiating symptoms following a confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection from those that may also occur in uninfected individuals (post COVID mimics) and be associated with a broader impact of the pandemic. The WHO post COVID definition was applied to the Luxembourgish longitudinal CON-VINCE cohort, where SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed via either a positive RT-qPCR or a serology test. Risk factor analysis was conducted on 1,865 individuals. Female gender, lower resilience, greater loneliness, and a higher number of comorbidities were associated with symptoms persistence. The symptomatology and comorbidity profiles of 559 participants (including 50 post COVID and 66 post COVID mimics) were investigated. Two distinct clusters of persistent symptoms were identified: (1) depression with anxiety, present in both infected and non-infected groups, and (2) memory impairment with fatigue, unique to the post COVID group. Therefore, presence of both memory impairment and fatigue may help differentiate post COVID patients from post COVID mimics. Yet, verification that memory impairment was newly developed was not possible, as this symptom was not recorded at baseline. Our findings suggest that future studies should consider factors affecting development of persistent post COVID-like symptoms observed in individuals that were never infected.

Scientific ReportsVol. 15(1)
Eurostat (LU), Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (LU), University of Luxembourg (LU), Luxembourg School of Business (LU), Intelligentsia Consultants (Luxembourg) (LU), Luxembourg Institute of Health (LU), Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LU), Laboratoire National de Santé (LU), Accenture (Luxembourg) (LU)
Openalex Percentile: Top 14%
Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
1.39
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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