Abstract
BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is a complex and severe mental disorder that typically manifests in late adolescence or early adulthood. Its characteristics include abnormalities in thinking, emotions, and behavior, which have long-term adverse effects on the patient’s cognitive and social functioning. Cognitive impairment is one of the important features of schizophrenia, especially in patients with first onset schizophrenia (FES), where this impairment may be more pronounced and directly affect the treatment effectiveness and quality of life of the disease. Vocational college students, as a special group, may experience cognitive impairment due to their educational environment and psychological pressure. Early intervention in FES patients is key to improving long-term prognosis, therefore, in-depth research on the risk factors of cognitive impairment in this population is of great significance for optimizing intervention measures. METHODS: The study focuses on FES patients in vocational colleges and systematically analyzes the main risk factors for cognitive impairment, providing scientific basis for intervention strategies in this field. The study was designed as a cross-sectional study, recruiting a total of 150 first-episode schizophrenia patients from vocational colleges. Evaluate the overall cognitive function of patients using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale (MoCA), while selecting neuropsychological domains such as memory, executive function, and attention for in-depth analysis. The socio demographic characteristics, disease history, and psychosocial factors of patients were obtained through standardized questionnaires and structured interviews. Using univariate analysis to screen potential variables associated with cognitive impairment, and further determining significant independent risk factors through multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The analysis of the situation of each patient is shown in Table 1. According to Table 1, among 150 patients, 92 (61.3%) had significant cognitive impairment (MoCA score<26). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the following risk factors were significantly associated with cognitive impairment. Untreated duration of mental illness exceeding 12 months significantly increases the risk of cognitive impairment, and patients with lower levels of education have poorer cognitive function. Patients with higher scores on the Negative Symptom Assessment Scale have a significantly increased risk of cognitive impairment. DISCUSSION: The research results indicate that the incidence of cognitive impairment is higher in first-episode schizophrenia patients in vocational colleges, and the main risk factors include longer duration of untreated mental illness, lower education level, and severe negative symptoms. Early intervention should focus on shortening treatment delays, strengthening educational support, and actively treating negative symptoms to alleviate cognitive impairment in patients. Future research can further validate research conclusions through longitudinal studies and explore personalized intervention strategies targeting risk factors to promote patient functional recovery and social integration.