2.1. Study design and patient cohort

We conducted a prospective, observational study of consecutive COVID-19 patients hospitalized at four New York City area hospitals within the same hospital system between March 10, 2020 and May 20, 2020. Patients with new neurological complications during index hospitalization who survived were propensity score-matched to COVID-19 survivors without neurological complications hospitalized during the same period and 6-month follow-up interviews were performed. Inclusion criteria were: age ≥ 18 years, hospital admission, reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction (RT-PCR) positive SARS-CoV-2 infection from nasopharyngeal sampling, survival to discharge and consent to participate in a follow-up interview. Exclusion criteria were: negative or missing SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR test, or evaluation in an outpatient or emergency department setting only. Only index admissions were included; readmissions were excluded to avoid double counting.

Patients were prospectively screened following hospital admission according to previously published criteria [¹¹]. Briefly, initial screening for inclusion was performed by the emergency department or admitting team, wherein a neurology consult would be triggered according to routine protocol for patients with new or worsened neurological disorders. Next, all inpatients evaluated by an in-hospital neurologist were screened twice daily for study inclusion and data abstraction was performed by neurology attendings, residents and fellows. COVID-19 patients who were prospectively excluded due to “no new neurological disorder” after evaluation by a neurologist were eligible for inclusion in the control group.