COVID-19 pandemic impacts on the elderly: the relationship between PPPD and prefrontal alpha rhythm

Abstract

Background

In the COVID-19 epidemic more patients presented with persistent postural-perceptual dizziness (PPPD), but it has received little attention by the doctors in China and many patients reject psychological measurements or scales. Therefore, there is an urgent need for an objective method to diagnose and evaluate PPPD.

Objective

To investigate the effect of the COVID-19 epidemic on elderly PPPD patients and define the relationship between prefrontal alpha rhythm asymmetry (FAA) by Electroencephalography (EEG) and PPPD.

Methods

This case–control study was conducted to discuss the differences of elderly outpatients (>60 years) with PPPD during the peak period of COVID-19 in 2020 and the corresponding period in 2019, and collect the prefrontal FAA value in PPPD during COVID-19 outbreak, which were compared to its FAA in healthy control.

Results

Compared with the same period in 2019, the number of elderly PPPD patients during the epidemic period in 2020 increased significantly (16.4%, p = 0.000, x² =31.802) . The left alpha wave signal power (F3) was significantly higher than the right alpha wave signal power (F4) (Z= −3.073, p = 0.002). In PPPD patients FAA were significantly lower in patients compared to control group (Z = −11.535, p = 0.000). There was a negative correlation between FAA and HAMA scores (R² =0.906, p < 0.05) and a negative correlation between FAA and HAMD scores (R² =0.859, p < 0.05), too.

Conclusions

The increase in cases of elderly PPPD patients is most likely attributed to the mental health in older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. Less left frontal brain activity in EEG may be related to elderly PPPD.

Keywords:

• Elderly
• PPPD
• COVID-19
• FAA
• HAMD
• HAMA

Acknowledgments

We thank all physicians and patients who participated in this study.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was proceeded with the approval of the Ethics Committee of Beijing Chao-yang Hospital, and the requirement for written informed consent was waived due to the retrospective design. Patient data have been de-identified upon data collection.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Data availability statement

The data sets used and analyzed in the current study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

No external funding was received for this research.