ArticleArthritis care & research2021
Hydroxychloroquine and Mortality Among Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus in the General Population.
Article in Arthritis care & research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Risk of Retinopathy Associated with Long-Term Use of Hydroxychloroquine in Patients with Rheumatic Diseases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Arthritis care & research · 2026Pooled it
- Use of hydroxychloroquine to treat patients with IgA nephropathy and time to accelerated glucocorticoid tapering.BMC nephrology · 2026Article
- Cardiovascular magnetic resonance as an initial screening tool in individuals with SLE and chest pain.Lupus science & medicine · 2025Article
- Neurovascular complications of antiphospholipid syndrome: a narrative review.Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria · 2024Review
- Identifying distinct phenotypes of patients with juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus: results from a cluster analysis by the Egyptian college of rheumatology (ECR) study group.BMC pediatrics · 2024Article
- Antiplatelet effects of hydroxychloroquine in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus evaluated by the total thrombus-formation analysis system (T-TAS).Lupus science & medicine · 2024Article
- Risk Factors for Hydroxychloroquine Retinopathy and Its Subtypes.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Effect of hydroxychloroquine blood concentration on the efficacy and ocular toxicity of systemic lupus erythematosus.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- The impact of traditional cardiovascular risk factor control on 7-year follow-up atherosclerosis progression in systemic lupus erythematosus.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2024Article
- Hydroxychloroquine use is associated with reduced mortality risk in older adults with rheumatoid arthritis.Clinical rheumatology · 2024Article
- Researchers in rheumatology should avoid categorization of continuous predictor variables.BMC medical research methodology · 2023Article
- Factors Predictive of In-Hospital Mortality in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Single-Centre Retrospective Analysis.Acta medica academica · 2023Article
- Hydroxychloroquine Use and Cardiovascular Events Among Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Rheumatoid Arthritis.Arthritis care & research · 2023Article
- Drug monitoring in systemic lupus erythematosus.Current opinion in pharmacology · 2022Review
- RetINal Toxicity And HydroxyChloroquine Therapy (INTACT): protocol for a prospective population-based cohort study.BMJ open · 2022Article
- Hydroxychloroquine in systemic lupus erythematosus: overview of current knowledge.Therapeutic advances in musculoskeletal disease · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveHydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been associated with improved survival among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) from tertiary referral centers. We aimed to determine the potential impact of HCQ use on the risk of mortality among SLE patients in the general population.
methodsWe conducted a nested case-control study within an incident SLE cohort from the entire population of British Columbia, Canada. Deceased patients were matched with up to 3 living controls by age, sex, and SLE disease duration. HCQ exposure was categorized by the time between the last HCQ prescription date covered (i.e., end of supply) and the index date (i.e., death date) as current (<30 days), recent (30-365 days), remote (>365 days), or never used. We used conditional logistic regression to assess the risk of all-cause mortality associated with current or recent HCQ exposure compared with remote HCQ users.
resultsAmong 6,241 patients with incident SLE, we identified 290 deceased patients and 502 matched SLE controls. Adjusted odd ratios for all-cause mortality were 0.50 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 0.30-0.82) for current users and 2.47 (95% CI 1.21-5.05) for recent users compared with remote users. Associations were similar in subgroups according to SLE duration (≤5 years versus >5 years).
conclusionOur general population data support a substantial survival benefit associated with current HCQ use. Increased mortality among patients who had discontinued HCQ recently could be due to a sick stopper effect or the loss of actual HCQ benefits.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.