October 5, 2020

Association of Corticosteroids Use and Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Testing and Treatment

Keywords (Tags): treatment

• A systematic review with 1 randomized trial and 19 cohort studies (16,977 hospitalized COVID-19 patients) reported that corticosteroid therapy was not associated with a reduction in short-term mortality (RR=0.9, 95%CI 0.7-1.2) but possibly with a delay in viral clearance (RR=1.5, 95%CI 1.1-1.9). The authors call for caution in interpretation due to discordant results observed between the RCT and observational studies, as well as the heterogeneity observed across observational studies.

Tlayjeh et al. (Sept 29, 2020). Association of Corticosteroids Use and Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Infection and Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2020.09.008