Pre-pandemic cognitive function and COVID-19 mortality: prospective cohort study
This article has been Reviewed by the following groups
Listed in
- Evaluated articles (ScreenIT)
Abstract
Poorer performance on standard tests of pre-morbid cognitive function is related to an elevated risk of death from lower respiratory tract infections but the link with coronavirus (COVID‑19) mortality is untested. Participants in UK Biobank, aged 40 to 69 years at study induction (2006–10), were administered a reaction time test, an indicator of information processing speed, and also had their verbal-numeric reasoning assessed. Between April 1st and September 23rd 2020 there were 388 registry-confirmed deaths (138 women) ascribed to COVID-19 in 494,932 individuals (269,602 women) with a reaction time test result, and 125 such deaths (38 women) in the subgroup of 180,198 people (97,794 women) with data on verbal-numeric reasoning. In analyses adjusted for age, sex, and ethnicity, a one standard deviation slower reaction time was related to a higher rate of death from COVID-19 (hazard ratio; 95% confidence interval: 1.18; 1.09, 1.28), as was a one standard deviation disadvantage on the verbal-numeric reasoning test (1.32; 1.09, 1.59). While there was some attenuation in these relationships after adjustment for additional covariates which included socio-economic status and lifestyle factors, the two pre-pandemic indicators of cognitive function continued to be related to COVID-19 mortality.
Article activity feed
-
-
SciScore for 10.1101/2021.02.07.21251082: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: Conducted across 22 research assessment centres, a total of 502,655 individuals aged 40 to 69 years participated (response 5.5%).26,27 Ethical approvals were received from the North-West Multicentre Research Ethics Committee. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Data are publicly available upon application (https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/). https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/suggested: (UK Biobank, RRID:SCR_012815)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share …
SciScore for 10.1101/2021.02.07.21251082: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: Conducted across 22 research assessment centres, a total of 502,655 individuals aged 40 to 69 years participated (response 5.5%).26,27 Ethical approvals were received from the North-West Multicentre Research Ethics Committee. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Data are publicly available upon application (https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/). https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/suggested: (UK Biobank, RRID:SCR_012815)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Study strengths and weaknesses: The strengths of our study include the well-characterised nature of the sample and the full coverage of the population for cause of death. Our study has some weaknesses. Although the present cohort is large, only a subgroup was administered the verbal-numeric reasoning tests and the relatively modest number of deaths attributable to COVID-19 in that sample perhaps resulted in lower-than-optimal levels of statistical precision. The cognitive tests are brief—especially the reaction time test—and this is likely to reduce effect sizes of associations. Nevertheless, both cognitive tests do demonstrate some concurrent validity with longer and better-validated tests.29 With the present sample not being representative of the general UK population, death rates from leading causes and the prevalence of reported risk factors are known to be underestimates of those apparent in less select groups;27 the same is likely to be the case for COVID-19 deaths. This notwithstanding, there is evidence that, for major causes of death, risk factor associations are externally valid.27 Lastly, levels of our baseline data – exposures and covariates – will vary in the period between study induction in UK Biobank and the present pandemic. This is a perennial issue in cohort studies and one we were able to investigate using data from a resurvey that took place around 8 years after baseline examination in a sub-sample.47 Analyses revealed moderate-to-high stability for verba...
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a protocol registration statement.
-
