Accelerated Cognitive Function Decline in Community-Dwelling Older Adults during COVID-19 Pandemic: The Korean Frailty and Aging Cohort Study (KFACS)

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on cognitive function of community-dwelling elderly individuals. Five-year (2016 to 2020) longitudinal data of the Korea Frailty and Aging Cohort Study (KFACS) were used. There were 1559 participants in 2016 and 1455 in 2017 aged 72–84 years. Follow-up was conducted at two-year intervals. We selected participants from the database of the 2017 and 2018 surveys for intergroup comparison over 2-year follow-ups. The number of study patients in the 2017-Group was 1027 and that of the 2018-Group was 879. In the intergroup comparison, the mean difference of word list memory score from 2018 to 2020 was −0.14, while that from 2017 to 2019 was 0.53. The mean difference of word list recall score from 2018 to 2020 was −0.25, while that from 2017 to 2019 was 0.03. These were significant even after adjusting confounding variables. In the intragroup comparison, the word list memory and recall scores from 2018 to 2020 were more decreased than those from 2016 to 2018. Conclusively, cognitive function of the Korean elderly cohort declined much more during the COVID-19 pandemic than before the pandemic, particularly in terms of memory and recall function.