A study shows how having contracted Covid-19 leads to cognitive failures at work.
- Patients who contract Covid-19 often experience problems with memory, attention and concentration at work, even after recovering from the initial illness
- In the past 24 hours, 53,802 new cases of Covid-19 have been identified by Santé Publique France.
Problems with memory, attention, concentration and action… This is the conclusion of a study by the University of Waterloo in the United States on the cognitive disorders of people who have suffered from Covid-19. According to the authors, these results, published in Scientific Reportsindicate that beyond the physical damage, the coronavirus can also have a detrimental influence on the performance of patients at work.
Cognitive failures
James Beck, associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Waterloo and his graduate student, Arden Flow, collected data from a sample of 94 full-time working adults who had or had not contracted Covid-19 at least one month before the ‘study. 80% of them said they had suffered from a coronavirus infection before March 2021, so before the vaccination was widely available in the United States, according to the authors.
“Compared to the group that had never had Covid-19, the one whose participants had contracted it reported more cognitive failures at work”, Beck explained. He also linked these cognitive failures to a decrease in self-assessment of job performance as well as an increase in intentions to voluntarily leave one’s current job.
mistakes made
Cognitive failures are defined as errors made in mental processes while performing work tasks that a person can usually perform successfully. after a study.
Memory-related cognitive failures refer to instances where a person fails to recall relevant work-related information, attention-related cognitive failures refer to an inability to stay focused on task-relevant information, and action-related cognitive failures refer to an inability to perform the correct steps in performing a task.
Currently, it is estimated that approximately a third of people who contracted Covid-19 experience persistent problems with memory, concentration and sustained attention.
Necessary adjustments
These symptoms can persist for months after initial recovery, and can appear even in people who have experienced relatively mild cases of Covid-19. These results should encourage employers to make the necessary adjustments to deal with a drop in the performance levels of people who have been affected by Covid-19. “These accommodations may include reducing the workload, extending deadlines or implementing flexible working arrangements”advise the authors.
