According to a new study, the COVID-19 pandemic was detrimental to brain health, even among people who were not infected.

From brain scans obtained from a large database, British researchers determined that during the pandemic years (between 2020 and 2022), people’s brains showed signs of aging, including shrinkage, according to a report published in Nature Communications.

Researchers propose that the immense strain placed on individuals, from weeks of isolation to the uncertainty of the future of the crisis, may have caused brain aging.

“The aging effect was most pronounced in males and those from socioeconomically deprived backgrounds. It highlights that brain health is not shaped solely by illness, but also by broader life experiences,” the study’s first author, Dr. Ali-Reza Mohammadi-Najed, a neuroimaging researcher at the University of Nottingham, said.

The researchers found a 5.5-month acceleration in aging associated with the pandemic. On average, the difference in brain aging between men and women was about 2.5 months.

“We don’t yet know exactly why, but this fits with other research suggesting that men may be more affected by certain types of stress or health challenges,” Dr. Mohammadi-Najed added.

The research team also analysed whether being infected with COVID-19 affected someone’s cognitive performance by examining results of tests taken at the time of the scans.

They found that people infected by COVID-19 appeared to perform more poorly when they were assessed after the pandemic.

“This study reminds us that brain health is shaped not only by illness but by our everyday environment,” Dr. Dorothee Auer, a professor of neuroimaging and senior author of the study, said.