A “substantial drop” in intelligence is a possible impact of Covid a study has found, and a test is available to see if you have suffered the affects of it.
Many have talked about a brain fog where people who have had the virus struggle to think clearly afterwards and researchers believe it could be connected to this drop in IQ.
There are thought to be around one million people who have had some kind of long term impact from Covid including this lack of clarity or muscle fatigue and heart palpitations.
The study, published in The Lancet, looked into the intelligence of 81,300 people, who had an average age of 46, during the period from January to December 2020.
Of those involved in the project, conducted by researchers at universities including Imperial College and Cambridge, 13,000 people said they had coronavirus and five percent had persistent symptoms.
Scientists discovered that people who had had Covid found it more difficult to carry out intelligence tests including memory.
Anyone interested in seeing if they have been impacted can do the Great British Intelligence Test that examines memory, reasoning and problem solving. It takes about 30 minutes and can be done here.
Researchers also claim to have found that the worst affected by Covid had the biggest decline in their mental ability and it was roughly the same as seven points in IQ.
The study stated: “These results accord with reports of long-Covid, where 'brain fog', trouble concentrating and difficulty finding the correct words are common.
“The deficits were of substantial effect size for people who had been hospitalised.”
Other factors were also considered in the drop in IQ as a result of Covid like a high temperature or fatigue that can make it more difficult to think straight.
The authors of the study said that more work needs to be done to prove the link between Covid and intelligence as most people didn’t have their IQ tested before they had the virus.
