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. 2021 Feb 13;41(1):24–30. doi: 10.1007/s11596-021-2313-6

Corticosteroids Treatment of Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Propensity Score Matching Study

Meng-yuan Liang 1,#, Ping Chen 1,#, Miao He 1, Jian Tang 1, Hui Li 1, Xin-liang He 1, Ya-ya Zhou 1, Si-wei Feng 1, Yu-e Xue 1, Yao Liu 1, Yan-ling Ma 1,✉, Jian-chu Zhang 1,✉
PMCID: PMC7881915  PMID: 33582901

Abstract

The role of corticosteroids in the treatment of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is controversial. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of adjuvant corticosteroids treatment on the outcome of patients with COVID-19 (n=966), using Propensity Score Matching to adjust for potential differences between the corticosteroids group (n=289) and the non-corticosteroids group (n=677). Analysis of data without adjusting differences in baseline characteristics indicated that the proportion of mechanical ventilation and the mortality was higher in the corticosteroids treatment group in total or severe/critical patients. The duration of viral shedding was longer in the non-corticosteroids treatment group in total or general/mild patients. After adjusting the difference between the corticosteroids and non-corticosteroids treatment group, the analysis revealed that the use of corticosteroids had no effect on the duration of viral shedding, in-hospital mortality or 28-day mortality.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1007/s11596-021-2313-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Key words: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, coronavirus disease 2019, corticosteroids, mortality, viral shedding

Electronic Supplementary Material

Appendix (3.8MB, pdf)

Acknowledgments

We thank all members of Wuhan Union Hospital for data collection and our health care workers for their dedication to the care for 2019n-Cov pneumonia patients in Wuhan, China.

Footnotes

This work was supported by the HUST COVID-19 Rapid Response Call (No. 2020kfyXGYJ009).

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declared no conflict of interest.

The authors contributed equally to this work.

Contributor Information

Meng-yuan Liang, Email: MYliangcn@163.com.

Ping Chen, Email: 592613301@qq.com.

Yan-ling Ma, Email: mayanling811@hust.edu.cn.

Jian-chu Zhang, Email: zsn0928@163.com.

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Appendix (3.8MB, pdf)

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