The Covid pandemic 'significantly' accelerated brain ageing – even among those who were never infected, a study suggests.
Scientists say the strain on people's lives, from isolation for weeks on end to the uncertainty surrounding the crisis, was 'detrimental' to the nation's health.
The findings emerged from a brain ageing model created using data from 15,334 healthy people.
This model was then used to analyse brain scans from another 996 healthy people. Half had scans taken before the pandemic and half had scans before and after the pandemic.
The latter group's brains were found to have aged an average of 5.5 months faster. Some had even aged an extra 20 months faster.
This accelerated ageing during the pandemic was seen regardless of whether the participants had been infected.
However, Covid infection was linked to an increased rate of acceleration as participant age increased.
Brain ageing was also more pronounced in men and for those experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage such as a lack of employment, low levels of income, poor health and lower levels of education.
The researchers also used tests taken by participants to assess cognitive performance.
For those infected with Covid, these showed a decline in performance – particularly in mental flexibility and processing speed.
The scientists, from Nottingham University, said: 'We found that the pandemic was detrimental to brain health and induced accelerated brain ageing regardless of infection.'
Dr Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Nejad, who led the study, told journal Nature Communications: 'What surprised me most was that even people who hadn't had Covid showed significant increases in brain ageing rates.
'It really shows how much the experience of the pandemic, everything from isolation to uncertainty, may have affected our brain health.'
His colleague Professor Dorothee Auer added: 'The pandemic put a strain on people's lives, especially those already facing disadvantage.'
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