Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections lead to acute- and chronic Long COVID (LC) symptoms. However, few studies have addressed LC sequelae on brain functions. This study was aimed to examine if acute symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) would persist during LC, and if memory problems would be correlated with sleep, depressive mood, or anxious complaints. Methods Our work followed a cohort of 236 patients from two public hospitals of the Federal District in mid-western Brazil. Patients’ interviews checked for clinical symptoms during acute and LC (5–8 months after real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, RT-qPCR). Results Most cases were non-hospitalized individuals (86.3%) with a median age of 41.2 years. While myalgia (50%), hyposmia (48.3%), and dysgeusia (45.8%) were prevalent symptoms in acute phase, fatigue (21.6%) followed by headache (19.1%) and myalgia (16.1%) commonly occurred during LC. In LC, 39.8% of individuals reported memory complaints, 36.9% felt anxious, 44.9% felt depressed, and 45.8% had sleep problems. Furthermore, memory complaints were associated with sleep problems (adjusted OR 3.206; 95% CI 1.723–6.030) and depressive feelings (adjusted OR 3.981; 95% CI 2.068–7.815). Conclusions The SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to persistent symptoms during LC, in which memory problems may be associated with sleep and depressive complaints. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12879-022-07065-3.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, Brazil, Depression, memory, Long COVID, Sleep, 【초록키워드】 coronavirus disease, SARS-CoV-2, coronavirus, fatigue, SARS-COV-2 infection, Infection, Symptom, headache, Symptoms, Brain, COVID, RT-qPCR, Cohort, Patient, reverse transcription, Hyposmia, myalgia, acute respiratory syndrome, supplementary material, 95% CI, problems, acute phase, clinical symptom, median age, individual, District, problem, depressive, functions, while, MOST, Public Hospital, prevalent, Long, polymerase chain, Result, occurred, reported, adjusted, correlated, addressed, checked, 【제목키워드】 mental health, Symptom, COVID, Cohort, Patient, persistent, Long,