TY  - JOUR
AU  - Urbach, Dietmar
AU  - Awiszus, Friedemann
AU  - Leiß, Sven
AU  - Venton, Tamsin
AU  - Specht, Alexander Vincent De
AU  - Apfelbacher, Christian
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/12/14
TI  - Associations of Medications With Lower Odds of Typical COVID-19 Symptoms: Cross-Sectional Symptom Surveillance Study
JO  - JMIR Public Health Surveill
SP  - e22521
VL  - 6
IS  - 4
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - SARS-CoV-2
KW  - statins
KW  - antihypertensives
KW  - surveillance
KW  - hydroxymethyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase inhibitors
KW  - online survey
AB  - Background: As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the globe, the search for an effective medication to treat the symptoms of COVID-19 continues as well. It would be desirable to identify a medication that is already in use for another condition and whose side effect profile and safety data are already known and approved. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different medications on typical COVID-19 symptoms by using data from an online surveillance survey. Methods: Between early April and late-July 2020, a total of 3654  individuals in Lower Saxony, Germany, participated in an online symptom-tracking survey conducted through the app covid-nein-danke.de. The questionnaire comprised items on typical COVID-19 symptoms, age range, gender, employment in patient-facing healthcare, housing status, postal code, previous illnesses, permanent medication, vaccination status, results of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and antibody tests for COVID-19 diagnosis, and consequent COVID-19 treatment if applicable. Odds ratio estimates with corresponding 95% CIs were computed for each medication and symptom by using logistic regression models. Results: Data analysis suggested a statistically significant inverse relationship between typical COVID-19 symptoms self-reported by the participants and self-reported statin therapy and, to a lesser extent, antihypertensive therapy. When COVID-19 diagnosis was based on restrictive symptom criteria (ie, presence of 4 out of 7 symptoms) or a positive RT-PCR test, a statistically significant association was found solely for statins (odds ratio 0.28, 95% CI 0.1-0.78). Conclusions: Individuals taking statin medication are more likely to have asymptomatic COVID-19, in which case they may be at an increased risk of transmitting the disease unknowingly. We suggest that the results of this study be incorporated into symptoms-based surveillance and decision-making protocols in regard to COVID-19 management. Whether statin therapy has a beneficial effect in combating COVID-19 cannot be deduced based on our findings and should be investigated by further study. Trial Registration: German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00022185; https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00022185; World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform U1111-1252-6946 
SN  - 2369-2960
UR  - http://publichealth.jmir.org/2020/4/e22521/
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/22521
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33197879
DO  - 10.2196/22521
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/22521
ER  -