ArticleOpen forum infectious diseases2023
Optimal Duration of Systemic Corticosteroids in Coronavirus Disease 2019 Treatment: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Article in Open forum infectious diseases, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- The role of corticosteroids in severe viral pneumonia: lessons from COVID-19 and influenza.Pneumonia (Nathan Qld.) · 2026Review
- Glucocorticoids suppress early lung inflammation and impair control of SARS-CoV-2 in non-human primates.PloS one · 2026Article
- Association of Extended Steroid Treatment With Bloodstream Infection in Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19: A National, Multicenter, Propensity Score-Matched Study.Journal of Korean medical science · 2025Article
- The clinical impact of prolonged steroid therapy in severe COVID-19 patients: a retrospective cohort study with propensity score matching.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2025Article
- Should the Start of Immunosuppressive Treatment for COVID-19 Rely upon the Degree of Inflammation or the Time from Onset?Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2025Article
- Clinical phenotyping uncovers heterogeneous associations between corticosteroid treatment and survival in critically ill COVID-19 patients.Intensive care medicine · 2024Article
- Review
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Corticosteroids confer a survival benefit in individuals hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who require oxygen. This meta-analysis seeks to determine the duration of corticosteroids needed to optimize this mortality benefit. Methods: Electronic databases were searched to 9 March 2022, for studies reporting corticosteroid versus no corticosteroid treatment in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. We estimated the effect of corticosteroids on mortality by random-effects meta-analyses. Subgroup analyses and meta-analyses were conducted to assess the optimal duration of corticosteroid treatment while adjusting for the severity of disease, age, duration of symptoms, and proportion of control group given steroids. Results: We identified 27 eligible studies consisting of 13 404 hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Seven randomized controlled trials and 20 observational studies were included in the meta-analysis of mortality, which suggested a protective association with corticosteroid therapy (risk ratio [RR], 0.71 [95% confidence interval {CI}, .58-.87]). Pooled analysis of 18 studies showed the greatest survival benefit for a treatment duration up to 6 days (RR, 0.54 [95% CI, .39-.74]). Survival benefit was 0.65 (95% CI, .51-.83) up to 7 days, and no additional survival benefit was observed beyond 7 days of treatment (RR, 0.64 [95% CI, .44-.93]). The survival benefit was not confounded by severity of disease, age, duration of symptoms, or proportion of control group given steroids. Conclusions: In this meta-analysis, optimal duration of corticosteroid treatment for hospitalized COVID-19 patients was up to 6 days, with no additional survival benefit with >7 days of treatment.
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