Observational studyInternational journal of antimicrobial agents2020
Low-dose hydroxychloroquine therapy and mortality in hospitalised patients with COVID-19: a nationwide observational study of 8075 participants.
Observational study in International journal of antimicrobial agents, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 69 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
69 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 125 citations in OpenAlex.
- Hydroxychloroquine and COVID-19 story: is the low-dose treatment the missing link? A comprehensive review and meta-analysis.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2024Pooled it
- Hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019: Rapid updated systematic review and meta-analysis.Reviews in medical virology · 2022Pooled it
- Coronavirus Disease 2019 as Cause of Viral Sepsis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Critical care medicine · 2021Pooled it
- A metaresearch study revealed susceptibility of Covid-19 treatment research to white hat bias: first, do no harm.Journal of clinical epidemiology · 2021Pooled it
- Chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine for prevention and treatment of COVID-19.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Hydroxychloroquine and mortality in COVID-19 patients: a systematic review and a meta-analysis of observational studies and randomized controlled trials.Pathogens and global healthPooled it
- The PRINCIPLE randomised controlled open label platform trial of hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID19 in community based patients at high risk.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Hydroxychloroquine use during the first COVID-19 wave: a case study highlighting the urgent need to enhance research practices within the publication ecosystem.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025Article
- Efficacy and safety of in-hospital treatment of Covid-19 infection with low-dose hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in hospitalized patients: A retrospective controlled cohort study.New microbes and new infections · 2023Article
- Impact of prophylactic hydroxychloroquine on ultrastructural impairment and cellular SARS-CoV-2 infection in different cells of bronchoalveolar lavage fluids of COVID-19 patients.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Profiles of Independent-Comorbidity Groups in Senior COVID-19 Patients Reveal Low Fatality Associated with Standard Care and Low-Dose Hydroxychloroquine over Antivirals.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2023Article
- Safety considerations of chloroquine in the treatment of patients with diabetes and COVID-19.Chemico-biological interactions · 2022Article
- Pharmacological Studies in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients in Belgium: We Could Do Better.Viruses · 2022Review
- Heterogeneity and Risk of Bias in Studies Examining Risk Factors for Severe Illness and Death in COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Assessment of Recovery Time, Worsening, and Death among Inpatients and Outpatients with COVID-19, Treated with Hydroxychloroquine or Chloroquine plus Azithromycin Combination in Burkina Faso.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2022Observational
- Pulmonary Delivery of Aerosolized Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine to Treat COVID-19: In Vitro Experimentation to Human Dosing Predictions.The AAPS journal · 2022Article
- Translational Modeling of Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine Dosimetry in Human Airways for Treating Viral Respiratory Infections.Pharmaceutical research · 2022Article
- Predicting COVID-19 progression in hospitalized patients in Belgium from a multi-state model.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
- The association of antiviral drugs with COVID-19 morbidity: The retrospective analysis of a nationwide COVID-19 cohort.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
- Efficacy of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients: a meta-analysis.Future virology · 2021Review
9 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been largely used and investigated as therapy for COVID-19 across various settings at a total dose usually ranging from 2400 mg to 9600 mg. In Belgium, off-label use of low-dose HCQ (total 2400 mg over 5 days) was recommended for hospitalised patients with COVID-19. We conducted a retrospective analysis of in-hospital mortality in the Belgian national COVID-19 hospital surveillance data. Patients treated either with HCQ monotherapy and supportive care (HCQ group) were compared with patients treated with supportive care only (no-HCQ group) using a competing risks proportional hazards regression with discharge alive as competing risk, adjusted for demographic and clinical features with robust standard errors. Of 8075 patients with complete discharge data on 24 May 2020 and diagnosed before 1 May 2020, 4542 received HCQ in monotherapy and 3533 were in the no-HCQ group. Death was reported in 804/4542 (17.7%) and 957/3533 (27.1%), respectively. In the multivariable analysis, mortality was lower in the HCQ group compared with the no-HCQ group [adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) = 0.684, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.617-0.758]. Compared with the no-HCQ group, mortality in the HCQ group was reduced both in patients diagnosed ≤5 days (n = 3975) and >5 days (n = 3487) after symptom onset [aHR = 0.701 (95% CI 0.617-0.796) and aHR = 0.647 (95% CI 0.525-0.797), respectively]. Compared with supportive care only, low-dose HCQ monotherapy was independently associated with lower mortality in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 diagnosed and treated early or later after symptom onset.
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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.