Role of Drugs Used for Chronic Disease Management on Susceptibility and Severity of COVID‐19: A Large Case‐Control Study
Huadong Yan, Ana M. Valdes, Amrita Vijay, Shanbo Wang, Lili Liang, Shiqing Yang, Hongxia Wang, Xiaoyan Tan, Jingyuan Du, Susu Jin, Kecheng Huang, Fanrong Jiang, Shun Zhang, Nanhong Zheng, Yaoren Hu, Ting Cai, Guruprasad P. Aithal
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate whether specific medications used in the treatment chronic diseases affected either the development and/ or severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in a cohort of 610 COVID-19 cases and 48,667 population-based controls from Zhejiang, China. Using a cohort of 578 COVID-19 cases and 48,667 population-based controls from Zhejiang, China, we tested the role of usage of cardiovascular, antidiabetic, and other medications on risk and severity of COVID-19. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, and body mass index and for presence of relevant comorbidities. Individuals with hypertension taking calcium channel blockers had significantly increased risk (odds ratio (OR) = 1.73, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2-2.3) of manifesting symptoms of COVID-19, whereas those taking angiotensin receptor blockers and diuretics had significantly lower disease risk (OR = 0.22, 95% CI 0.15-0.30 and OR = 0.30, 95% CI 0.19-0.58, respectively). Among those with type 2 diabetes, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (OR = 6.02, 95% CI 2.3-15.5) and insulin (OR = 2.71, 95% CI 1.6-5.5) were more and glucosidase inhibitors were less prevalent (OR = 0.11, 95% CI 0.1-0.3) among with patients with COVID-19. Drugs used in the treatment of hypertension and diabetes influence the risk of development of COVID-19, but, not its severity.