The study analyzed Danish inpatients and outpatients between February 2020 and November 2021, as well as influenza patients from the corresponding period before the pandemic. Researchers used statistical methods to calculate relative risk, and results were stratified by hospitalization status, age, gender, and comorbidities.
dr Pardis Zarifkar, lead author of the study from the Department of Neurology at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark, explained: “More than two years after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the precise nature and evolution of the impact of Covid-19 on neurological diseases is unknown “still not characterized. Previous studies have found an association with neurological syndromes, but it is not yet known whether Covid-19 also influences the incidence of certain neurological diseases and whether it differs from other respiratory infections.”
Even with the flu
However, the increased risk for most neurological disorders was no higher in Covid-19 positive patients than in those who had been diagnosed with the flu or other respiratory disease. Covid-19 patients had a 1.7-fold increased risk of ischemic stroke compared to influenza and bacterial pneumonia in patients over 80 years of age.
The incidence of other neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, Guillain-Barré syndrome and narcolepsy did not increase after Covid-19, flu or pneumonia.
dr Pardis Zarifkar added: “These results will advance our understanding of the long-term effects of Covid-19 on the body and the role that infections play in neurodegenerative diseases and stroke.”