Exploring the impact of cognitive dysfunction, fatigue, and shortness of breath on activities of daily life after COVID-19 infection, until 1-year follow-up.

The hospital and primary-care groups were not directly comparable because time from infection to first assessment differed, and the groups also differed in age, sex, and education. The primary-care group with prior hospital stay had only 13 participants, so it was described but not included in group comparisons. Fatigue and cognitive complaints were partly based on interviews, and the interview method may have made fatigue more likely to be reported. Cognition was screened with the MoCA and Trail Making Test, not a full neuropsychological battery, so the tests could not fully describe each person's daily cognitive capacity. Group affiliation could be known during interviews and assessments, which might have influenced activity ratings, although the authors thought this was unlikely. The paper describes symptoms and assessments, not a tested intervention.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by regional research funding grants for the region of Västra Götaland.

Do not read the higher symptom reports in primary care as proof that milder acute infection caused more disability. The groups were not directly comparable because time from infection to assessment, age, sex, and education differed, and hospital patients performed worse on cognitive tests.