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  -