ArticleDrugs2020
Pharmacotherapy for Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19: Treatment Patterns by Disease Severity.
Article in Drugs, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- COVID-19 treatment of hospital patients worldwide at the onset of the pandemic in 2020: a systematic review.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Pooled it
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of geographic differences in comorbidities and associated severity and mortality among individuals with COVID-19.Scientific reports · 2021Pooled it
- Current trends and geographical differences in therapeutic profile and outcomes of COVID-19 among pregnant women - a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2021Pooled it
- Hospital-Level Variation in COVID-19 Treatment Among Hospitalized Adults in the United States: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Medical care · 2025Article
- A Dynamic Prognostic Model for Identifying Vulnerable COVID-19 Patients at High Risk of Rapid Deterioration.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2024Article
- A Descriptive Cohort Study of Drug Utilization Patterns Among Patients Hospitalized With Coronavirus Disease 2019 in the United States, January 2021-February 2022.Open forum infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Gastrointestinal prophylaxis for COVID-19: an illustration of severe bias arising from inappropriate comparators in observational studies.Journal of clinical epidemiology · 2022Article
- COVID-19 pharmacotherapy utilization patterns during pregnancy: International Registry of Coronavirus Exposure in Pregnancy.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2022Observational
- Potential for Drug Interactions and Polypharmacy From Treatment of COVID-19 in Long-Term Care.Journal of the American Medical Directors Association · 2022Article
- Clinical Characteristics, Risk Factors for Severity and Pharmacotherapy in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients in the United Arab Emirates.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Examination of Medication Use Patterns by Age Group, Comorbidity, and Month in COVID-19 Positive Patients in a Large Statewide Health System During the Pandemic in 2020.The Journal of pharmacy technology : jPT : official publication of the Association of Pharmacy Technicians · 2022Article
- Challenges in evaluating treatments for COVID-19: The case of in-hospital anticoagulant use and the risk of adverse outcomes.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Article
- Longitudinal Data Discontinuity in Electronic Health Records and Consequences for Medication Effectiveness Studies.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2022Article
- Clinical Management of Hospitalized Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients in the United States.Open forum infectious diseases · 2022Article
- Genome-wide screening of SARS-CoV-2 infection-related genes based on the blood leukocytes sequencing data set of patients with COVID-19.Journal of medical virology · 2021Article
- Just a Reflection: Does Drug Repurposing Perpetuate Sex-Gender Bias in the Safety Profile?Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Real-World Evidence for Assessing Pharmaceutical Treatments in the Context of COVID-19.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2021Article
- Real-world treatment patterns and clinical outcomes for inpatients with COVID-19 in the US from September 2020 to February 2021.PloS one · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTreatment decisions for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) depend on disease severity, but the prescribing pattern by severity and drivers of therapeutic choices remain unclear.
objectivesThe objectives of the study were to evaluate pharmacological treatment patterns by COVID-19 severity and identify the determinants of prescribing for COVID-19.
methodsUsing electronic health record data from a large Massachusetts-based healthcare system, we identified all patients aged ≥ 18 years hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 from 1 March to 24 May, 2020. We defined five levels of COVID-19 severity at hospital admission: (1) hospitalized but not requiring supplemental oxygen; (2-4) hospitalized and requiring oxygen ≤ 2, 3-4, and ≥ 5 L per minute, respectively; and (5) intubated or admitted to an intensive care unit. We assessed the medications used to treat COVID-19 or as supportive care during hospitalization.
resultsAmong 2821 patients hospitalized for COVID-19, we found inpatient mortality increased by severity from 5% for level 1 to 23% for level 5. As compared to patients with severity level 1, those with severity level 5 were 3.53 times (95% confidence interval 2.73-4.57) more likely to receive a medication used to treat COVID-19. Other predictors of treatment were fever, low oxygen saturation, presence of co-morbidities, and elevated inflammatory biomarkers. The use of most COVID-19 relevant medications has dropped substantially while the use of remdesivir and therapeutic anticoagulants has increased over the study period.
conclusionsCareful consideration of disease severity and other determinants of COVID-19 drug use is necessary for appropriate conduct and interpretation of non-randomized studies evaluating outcomes of COVID-19 treatments.
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