Publication date: Jul 01, 2024

Cognitive impairment is often reported after SARS-CoV-2 infection, yet evidence gaps remain. We aimed to (i) report the prevalence and characteristics of children and young people (CYP) reporting “brain fog” (i. e., cognitive impairment) 12-months post PCR-proven SARS-CoV-2 infection and determine whether differences by infection status exist and (ii) explore the prevalence of CYP experiencing cognitive impairment over a 12-month period post-infection and investigate the relationship between cognitive impairment and poor mental health and well-being, mental fatigue and sleep problems. The Omicron CLoCk sub-study, set up in January 2022, collected data on first-time PCR-test-positive and PCR-proven reinfected CYP at time of testing and at 3-, 6- and 12-months post-testing. We describe the prevalence of cognitive impairment at 12-months, indicating when it was first reported. We characterise CYP experiencing cognitive impairment and use chi-squared tests to determine whether cognitive impairment prevalence varied by infection status. We explore the relationship between cognitive impairment and poor mental health and well-being, mental fatigue and trouble sleeping using validated scales. We examine associations at 3-, 6- and 12-months post-testing by infection status using Mann-Whitney U and chi-square tests. At 12-months post-testing, 7. 0 % (24/345) of first-positives and 7. 5 % (27/360) of reinfected CYP experienced cognitive impairment with no difference between infection-status groups (p = 0. 78). The majority of these CYP experienced cognitive impairment for the first time at either time of testing or 3-months post-test (no difference between the infection-status groups; p = 0. 60). 70. 8 % of first-positives experiencing cognitive impairment at 12-months, were 15-to-17-years-old as were 33. 3 % of reinfected CYP experiencing cognitive impairment (p

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