• Milena Gianfrancesco, Kimme L Hyrich, Sarah Al-Adely, Loreto Carmona, Maria I Danila, Laure Gossec, Zara Izadi, Lindsay Jacobsohn, Patricia Katz, Saskia Lawson-Tovey, Elsa F Mateus, Stephanie Rush, Gabriela Schmajuk, Julia Simard, Anja Strangfeld, Laura Trupin, Katherine D Wysham, Suleman Bhana, Wendy Costello, Rebecca Grainger, Jonathan S Hausmann, Jean W Liew, Emily Sirotich, Paul Sufka, Zachary S Wallace, Jinoos Yazdany, Pedro M Machado, Philip C Robinson, and COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance.
• Department of Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
• Ann. Rheum. Dis. 2020 Jul 1; 79 (7): 859-866.

ObjectivesCOVID-19 outcomes in people with rheumatic diseases remain poorly understood. The aim was to examine demographic and clinical factors associated with COVID-19 hospitalisation status in people with rheumatic disease.MethodsCase series of individuals with rheumatic disease and COVID-19 from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance registry: 24 March 2020 to 20 April 2020. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate ORs and 95% CIs of hospitalisation. Age, sex, smoking status, rheumatic disease diagnosis, comorbidities and rheumatic disease medications taken immediately prior to infection were analysed.ResultsA total of 600 cases from 40 countries were included. Nearly half of the cases were hospitalised (277, 46%) and 55 (9%) died. In multivariable-adjusted models, prednisone dose ≥10 mg/day was associated with higher odds of hospitalisation (OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.06 to 3.96). Use of conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) alone or in combination with biologics/Janus Kinase inhibitors was not associated with hospitalisation (OR 1.23, 95% CI 0.70 to 2.17 and OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.37 to 1.46, respectively). Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use was not associated with hospitalisation status (OR 0.64, 95% CI 0.39 to 1.06). Tumour necrosis factor inhibitor (anti-TNF) use was associated with a reduced odds of hospitalisation (OR 0.40, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.81), while no association with antimalarial use (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.57 to 1.57) was observed.ConclusionsWe found that glucocorticoid exposure of ≥10 mg/day is associated with a higher odds of hospitalisation and anti-TNF with a decreased odds of hospitalisation in patients with rheumatic disease. Neither exposure to DMARDs nor NSAIDs were associated with increased odds of hospitalisation.© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.

67 keywords...

hide…