Risk of COVID-19 hospitalization and mortality in rheumatic patients treated with hydroxychloroquine or other conventional DMARDs in Italy

4/15 Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis study (treated before exposed to the virus)

Alegiani et al., Rheumatology, doi:10.1093/rheumatology/keab348 (Peer Reviewed)
Risk of COVID-19 hospitalization and mortality in rheumatic patients treated with hydroxychloroquine or other conventional DMARDs in Italy

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Retrospective database analysis case control study of rheumatic patients. When compared with other cDMARDs, HCQ users had significantly lower hospitalization, however there was no significant difference in mortality. Results differ significantly from previous studies, for example showing mortality OR 0.94 [0.83-1.06] for patients with rheumatic disease and mortality OR 0.88 [0.74-1.05] for patients with RA/SLE. Other research shows that the risk of COVID-19 for systemic autoimmune disease patients is much higher overall.

Alegiani et al., 4/15/2021, retrospective, case control, database analysis, Italy, Europe, peer-reviewed, 16 authors.

risk of death, 8.0% higher, RR 1.08, p = 0.64, HCQ vs. other cDMARDs, RR approximated with OR.

risk of hospitalization, 18.0% lower, RR 0.82, p = 0.03, HCQ vs. other cDMARDs, RR approximated with OR.

risk of death, 19.0% higher, RR 1.19, p = 0.32, HCQ vs. MTX, RR approximated with OR.

risk of hospitalization, 12.0% lower, RR 0.88, p = 0.17, HCQ vs. MTX, RR approximated with OR.

Effect extraction follows pre-specified rules prioritizing more serious outcomes. For an individual study the most serious outcome may have a smaller number of events and lower statistical signficance, however this provides the strongest evidence for the most serious outcomes when combining the results of many trials.

All 344 studies Meta Analysis

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