Fertility Intention Among Chinese Reproductive Couples During the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Cross-Sectional Study.

A decline in the fertility rate has been observed worldwide, which hampers social development severely. Given the impacts of COVID-19 on individuals and society, it is of great significance to investigate the fertility intention of reproductive couples under COVID-19. The convenience sampling method was used to obtain our study sample. The self-administered questionnaire included the following components: sociodemographic characteristics (age, residence, education, occupation, characteristics of the couples, and annual household income), reproductive history (parity, number of children, child gender, and duration of preparing pregnancy), and attitudes toward COVID-19, was distributed online via an applet of WeChat. The results showed that among 4,133 valid questionnaires, 1,091 had fertility intention before COVID-19, whereas 3,042 did not, indicating a fertility intention rate of 26.4% among participating couples. Of the 1,091 couples who had fertility intention before COVID-19, 520 (47.7%) were affected by the outbreak, whereas 571 (52.3%) were not. By multivariable logistic regression analysis, we further found that couples living in Hubei Province, the epicenter in China (OR 2.20, 95% CI 1.35-3.60), and couples who prepared for pregnancy longer before COVID-19 (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.06-1.33) were more likely to change their fertility intention under the pandemic. In addition, most of the participants reported their fertility intention was affected by the inconvenience of seeking medical service under COVID-19. Therefore, more forms of medical services to provide convenience for patients might be effective ways to reverse the declined fertility intention rate in facing COVID-19.

Use of proton pump inhibitors are associated with higher mortality in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: The adverse effects of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) on pneumonia have been well reported. However, the relationship between the use of PPIs and the adverse outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently inconclusive. In this study, we aimed to explore the relationship between the use of PPIs and the in-hospital mortality among patients who were laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2. METHODS: Data was derived from 2 hospitals which both were the first batch of SARS-CoV-2 specialist hospitals with four types of sensitivity analyses. This cohort included 4634 patients older than 18 years who were laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2. Endpoints were death in hospital (primary) and the recovery of COVID-19 (secondary: the time of COVID-19 nucleic acid testing turning negative). RESULTS: In the entire cohort, there were 3588 non-users, 399 ≤ 0.5 defined daily dose (DDD) PPIs users, 483 1 DDD users, and 164 ≥ 1.5 DDD users. The multivariate logistic regression analysis (odds ratio (OR) = 3.63, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.83-7.23, P = 0.0002) and four types of sensitivity analyses showed higher mortality in patients using PPIs during hospitalization, while the relationship between different PPIs dosages and the hospital mortality remained insignificant. Usage of the PPIs significantly prolongs the time of COVID-19 nucleic acid testing turning negative. CONCLUSIONS: The use of PPIs may increase the risk of in-hospital death of patients who were laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2, which means that physicians may need to re-evaluate the benefit-risk assessment of the use of PPIs during the COVID-19 pandemic.