ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Neurological manifestations have been associated with a poorer
prognosis in COVID-19. However, data regarding their
incidence according to
sex and
age groups is still lacking.
Methods:
This retrospective multicentric cohort collected data from 39 Brazilian
hospitals from 17 cities, from
adult COVID-19 admitted from March 2020 to January 2022.
Neurological manifestations presented at
hospital admission were assessed according to
incidence by
sex and
age group.
Results:
From 13,603 COVID-19
patients, median age was 60 years old and 53.0% were
men.
Women were more likely to present with
headaches (22.4% vs. 17.7%, p < 0.001; OR 1.36, 95%
confidence interval [CI] 1.22-1.52) than
men and also presented a lower
risk of having seizures (OR 0.43, 95% CI 0.20-0.94). Although
delirium was more frequent in
women (6.6% vs. 5.7%, p = 0.020),
sex was not associated with
delirium in the multivariable logistc regresssion
analysis.
Delirium,
syncope and
coma increased with age (1.5% [18-39 years] vs. 22.4% [80 years or over], p < 0.001, OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.06-1.07; 0.7% vs. 1.7%, p = 0.002, OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.02; 0.2% vs. 1.3% p < 0.001, OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.02-1.06), while,
headache (26.5% vs. 7.1%, OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.98-0.99),
anosmia (11.4% vs. 3.3%, OR 0.99, 95% CI] 0.98-0.99 and
ageusia (13.1% vs. 3.5%, OR 0.99, CI 0.98-0.99) decreased (p < 0.001 for all).
Conclusion:
Older COVID-19
patients were more likely to present
delirium,
syncope and
coma, while the
incidence of
anosmia,
ageusia and
headaches decreased with age.
Women were more likely to present
headache, and less likely to present seizures.
