Analysis of the Effect of Proton-Pump Inhibitors on the Course of COVID-19

What is the role of proton pump inhibitors consumption on the clinical presentation and severity of COVID-19 infection?

OBJECTIVE

Proton pump inhibitors (PPI) are among the most prescribed drugs worldwide; therefore, assessing their effect on COVID-19 infection symptoms and severity is of great importance. This study was designed to evaluate the role of previous PPI consumption on the clinical presentation and severity of COVID-19.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

All adult COVID-19 patients were eligible in this observational cross-sectional study. The patients' demographic and clinical data, history of PPI consumption, and comorbid disease were recorded. Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) and quick COVID-19 severity index (qCSI) score were calculated for each patient. IBM SPSS version 25 was used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS

Totally 670 patients completed the study (PPI users=121). The average severity (qCSI) score of PPI user patients with comorbidity score of zero was significantly higher than non-users (P-value=0.001). Mortality rate was 6.6% and 3.8% in PPI-users and non-users respectively (P-value=0.117). PPI users were significantly more symptomatic compared to non-users (P-value=0.001).

CONCLUSION

We found that PPI users were meaningfully more symptomatic and had a higher severity (qCSI) score. Rational prescription of PPIs should be considered by physicians during and after the pandemic.

Comparative risk of incidence and clinical outcomes of COVID-19 among proton pump inhibitor and histamine-2 receptor antagonist short-term users: a nationwide retrospective cohort study

Background

This study aimed to evaluate incidence risk and adverse clinical outcomes in COVID-19 disease among short-term users of acid-suppressants in South Korea.

Methods

This retrospective cohort study, conducted using a nationwide claims database for South Korea, used data from patients with COVID-19 tested between January 1 and May 15, 2020. Patients aged over 18 years and prescribed proton pump inhibitors (PPI) or histamine-2 receptor antagonist (H₂RA) for more than 7 days were identified. Primary outcome was COVID-19 while secondary outcomes were all-cause mortality, hospitalization with respiratory disease, or intensive respiratory intervention. Large-scale propensity scores were used to match patients, while the Cox proportional hazard model was utilized to evaluate any association between exposure and outcome(s). The risk estimates were calibrated by using 123 negative control outcomes.

Results

We identified 26,166 PPI users and 62,117 H₂RA users. After propensity score matching, compared to H₂RA use, PPI use was not significantly associated with lower risk of COVID-19 (calibrated hazard ratio [HR], 0.81 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.30–2.19]); moreover, PPI use was not associated with adverse clinical outcomes in COVID-19, namely, hospitalization with respiratory disease (calibrated HR, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.72–1.08]), intensive respiratory interventions (calibrated HR, 0.92 [95% CI, 0.46–1.82]), except for all-cause mortality (calibrated HR, 0.54 [95% CI, 0.31–0.95]).

Conclusions

In this study, we found that the PPI user was not associated with risk of COVID-19 compared to H₂RA users. There was no significant relationship between severe clinical outcomes of COVID-19 and exposure to PPI compared with H₂RA, except for all-cause mortality.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40360-022-00549-7.

Will Proton Pump Inhibitors Lead to a Higher Risk of COVID-19 Infection and Progression to Severe Disease? A Meta-analysis

Previous researches on the association between proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) use and the treatment and prevention of COVID-19 has generated inconsistent findings. Therefore, this meta-analysis was conducted to clarify the outcome in patients who take PPIs. Eight articles with more than 268,683 subjects were included. PPI use was not associated with increased or decreased risk of COVID-19 infection (OR:3.16, 95% CI=0.74-13.43, P=0.12) or mortality risk of COVID-19 patients (OR=1.91, 95% CI=0.86-4.24, P=0.11). While it can add risk of severe disease (OR=1.54, 95% CI=1.20-1.99, P<0.001;) and secondary infection (OR=4.33, 95% CI=2.57-7.29). In summary, PPI use is not associated with an increased risk of infection and may not change the mortality risk of COVID-19, but appeared to be associated with an increased risk of progression to severe disease and secondary infection. However, more original studies to further clarify the relationship between PPI and COVID-19 are still urgently needed.