Associations of Medications With Lower Odds of Typical COVID-19 Symptoms: Cross-Sectional Symptom Surveillance Study.
JMIR Public Health Surveill
; 6(4): e22521, 2020 12 14.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-976110
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the globe, the search for an effective medication to treat the symptoms of COVID-19 continues as well. It would be desirable to identify a medication that is already in use for another condition and whose side effect profile and safety data are already known and approved.OBJECTIVE:
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different medications on typical COVID-19 symptoms by using data from an online surveillance survey.METHODS:
Between early April and late-July 2020, a total of 3654 individuals in Lower Saxony, Germany, participated in an online symptom-tracking survey conducted through the app covid-nein-danke.de. The questionnaire comprised items on typical COVID-19 symptoms, age range, gender, employment in patient-facing healthcare, housing status, postal code, previous illnesses, permanent medication, vaccination status, results of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and antibody tests for COVID-19 diagnosis, and consequent COVID-19 treatment if applicable. Odds ratio estimates with corresponding 95% CIs were computed for each medication and symptom by using logistic regression models.RESULTS:
Data analysis suggested a statistically significant inverse relationship between typical COVID-19 symptoms self-reported by the participants and self-reported statin therapy and, to a lesser extent, antihypertensive therapy. When COVID-19 diagnosis was based on restrictive symptom criteria (ie, presence of 4 out of 7 symptoms) or a positive RT-PCR test, a statistically significant association was found solely for statins (odds ratio 0.28, 95% CI 0.1-0.78).CONCLUSIONS:
Individuals taking statin medication are more likely to have asymptomatic COVID-19, in which case they may be at an increased risk of transmitting the disease unknowingly. We suggest that the results of this study be incorporated into symptoms-based surveillance and decision-making protocols in regard to COVID-19 management. Whether statin therapy has a beneficial effect in combating COVID-19 cannot be deduced based on our findings and should be investigated by further study. TRIAL REGISTRATION German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00022185; https//www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00022185; World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform U1111-1252-6946.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors
/
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19 Drug Treatment
/
Antihypertensive Agents
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Long Covid
/
Vaccines
Limits:
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
JMIR Public Health Surveill
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
22521
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