Why Methodology Is Important: Coffee as a Candidate Treatment for COVID-19?

BACKGROUND: During this pandemic situation, some studies have led to hasty conclusions about Corona Virus Disease-19 (COVID-19) treatment, due to a lack of methodology. This pedagogic study aimed to highlight potential biases in research on COVID-19 treatment. METHODS: We evaluate the effect of coffee's active part, 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine (TMX) on patients with COVID-19. A cohort of 93 patients, with a diagnosis of COVID-19 is analyzed. RESULTS: TMX group and control group included, respectively, 26 and 67 patients. In the TMX group, patients had a median length of stay in hospital of 5.5 days shorter than in the control group (9.5 vs. 15 days, p < 0.05). Patients in the control group were more severe than patients in the TMX group with a significantly higher National Early Warning Score 2 (NEWS-2 score) (8 vs. 6, p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Multiple biases prevents us from concluding to an effect of coffee on COVID-19. Despite an important social pressure during this crisis, methodology and conscientiousness are the best way to avoid hasty conclusions that can be deleterious for patients. Identifier: NCT04395742.

EQSAR: A national survey of sleep duration among French Anaesthesiologists and Intensivists.

INTRODUCTION: The US National Sleep Foundation recommends more than 7 hours of sleep per night for adults. Anaesthesiologists and intensivists (AI) are at high risk of short sleep time. The aim of this present survey was to assess the sleep duration of French AI and to identify independent factors related to a sleep time less than the recommended 7 hours. METHODS: This prospective observational study was conducted between April and June 2018 and included 6,210 French AI with night-work obligations. The primary outcome variable was sleep duration strictly inferior to 7 hours per night. The covariables included in the multivariable model were selected after the univariate analysis, with those with a p < 0.05 included in the final model. RESULTS: Of the 6,210 AI, 3,699 responded to the survey, and 2,483 were included in the analysis. Of the 2,483 responders, 1,533 (61.7%) reported sleep duration strictly less than 7 hours per night. After the multivariate analysis, the following risk factors were independently associated with sleep duration strictly under 7 hours: age (OR: 1.28 ; IC [1.19 - 1.37]), more than 5 on-call shifts per month, (OR: 1.41 ; IC [1.30 - 1.50]), active smoking (OR: 1.37 ; IC [1.07 - 1.75]), and screen consultation at bedtime (OR: 1.85 ; IC [1.31 - 2.62]). CONCLUSION: This study gives a recent overview of sleep time and quality of French AI. It could be a useful tool for monitoring sleep disorders among the practitioners and their impact on quality of life.