Associations of medications with lower odds of typical COVID-19 symptoms
- 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 consequentBackground: 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.…
Author details: | Dietmar Urbach, Friedemann AwiszusORCiDGND, Sven Leiß, Tamsin Venton, Alexander Vincent De SpechtORCiD, Christian ApfelbacherORCiDGND |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.2196/22521 |
ISSN: | 2369-2960 |
Title of parent work (English): | JMIR public health and surveillance |
Subtitle (English): | cross-sectional symptom surveillance study |
Publisher: | JMIR Publications |
Place of publishing: | Toronto |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2020/12/14 |
Publication year: | 2020 |
Release date: | 2022/11/04 |
Tag: | COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; antihypertensives; hydroxymethyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase inhibitors;online survey; statins; surveillance |
Volume: | 6 |
Issue: | 4 |
Article number: | e22521 |
Number of pages: | 10 |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Sport- und Gesundheitswissenschaften |
DDC classification: | 6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit |
Publishing method: | Open Access / Gold Open-Access |
License (German): | CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |