TY - JOUR A1 - Urbach, Dietmar A1 - Awiszus, Friedemann A1 - Leiß, Sven A1 - Venton, Tamsin A1 - De Specht, Alexander Vincent A1 - Apfelbacher, Christian T1 - Associations of medications with lower odds of typical COVID-19 symptoms BT - cross-sectional symptom surveillance study JF - JMIR public health and surveillance N2 - 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. KW - COVID-19 KW - SARS-CoV-2 KW - statins KW - antihypertensives KW - surveillance KW - hydroxymethyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase inhibitors;online survey Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2196/22521 SN - 2369-2960 VL - 6 IS - 4 PB - JMIR Publications CY - Toronto ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Booker, Anke A1 - Jacob, Louis E. C. A1 - Rapp, Michael Armin A1 - Bohlken, Jens A1 - Kostev, Karel T1 - Risk factors for dementia diagnosis in German primary care practices JF - International psychogeriatrics N2 - Background: Dementia is a psychiatric condition the development of which is associated with numerous aspects of life. Our aim was to estimate dementia risk factors in German primary care patients. Methods: The case-control study included primary care patients (70-90 years) with first diagnosis of dementia (all-cause) during the index period (01/2010-12/2014) (Disease Analyzer, Germany), and controls without dementia matched (1:1) to cases on the basis of age, sex, type of health insurance, and physician. Practice visit records were used to verify that there had been 10 years of continuous follow-up prior to the index date. Multivariate logistic regression models were fitted with dementia as a dependent variable and the potential predictors. Conclusions: Risk factors for dementia found in this study are consistent with the literature. Nevertheless, the associations between statin, PPI and antihypertensive drug use, and decreased risk of dementia need further investigations. KW - dementia KW - Alzheimer KW - risk factors KW - statins Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1041610215002082 SN - 1041-6102 SN - 1741-203X VL - 28 SP - 1059 EP - 1065 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - New York ER - TY - GEN A1 - Booker, Anke A1 - Jacob, Louis E. C. A1 - Rapp, Michael Armin A1 - Bohlken, Jens A1 - Kostev, Karel T1 - Risk factors for dementia diagnosis in German primary care practices T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Background: Dementia is a psychiatric condition the development of which is associated with numerous aspects of life. Our aim was to estimate dementia risk factors in German primary care patients. Methods: The case-control study included primary care patients (70-90 years) with first diagnosis of dementia (all-cause) during the index period (01/2010-12/2014) (Disease Analyzer, Germany), and controls without dementia matched (1:1) to cases on the basis of age, sex, type of health insurance, and physician. Practice visit records were used to verify that there had been 10 years of continuous follow-up prior to the index date. Multivariate logistic regression models were fitted with dementia as a dependent variable and the potential predictors. Results: The mean age for the 11,956 cases and the 11,956 controls was 80.4 (SD: 5.3) years. 39.0% of them were male and 1.9% had private health insurance. In the multivariate regression model, the following variables were linked to a significant extent with an increased risk of dementia: diabetes (OR: 1.17; 95% CI: 1.10-1.24), lipid metabolism (1.07; 1.00-1.14), stroke incl. TIA (1.68; 1.57-1.80), Parkinson's disease (PD) (1.89; 1.64-2.19), intracranial injury (1.30; 1.00-1.70), coronary heart disease (1.06; 1.00-1.13), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) (2.12; 1.82-2.48), mental and behavioral disorders due to alcohol use (1.96; 1.50-2.57). The use of statins (OR: 0.94; 0.90-0.99), proton-pump inhibitors (PPI) (0.93; 0.90-0.97), and antihypertensive drugs (0.96, 0.94-0.99) were associated with a decreased risk of developing dementia. Conclusions: Risk factors for dementia found in this study are consistent with the literature. Nevertheless, the associations between statin, PPI and antihypertensive drug use, and decreased risk of dementia need further investigations. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 449 KW - dementia KW - Alzheimer KW - risk factors KW - statins Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-413441 IS - 449 ER -