The risk of mortality in patients with COVID-19 with pre-diagnosis use of NSAIDs: a meta-analysis

Abstract

The notion that the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) may lead to adverse outcomes upon acquisition of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) should be discredited with a review of the real-life evidence. We aimed to perform a meta-analysis to summarize the risk of mortality with the preadmission/pre-diagnosis use of NSAIDs in patients with COVID-19. A systematic literature search was performed to identify eligible studies in electronic databases. The outcome of interest was the development of a fatal course of COVID-19. Adjusted hazard ratio or odds ratio/relative risk and the corresponding 95% confidence interval from each study were pooled using a random-effects model to produce pooled hazard ratio and pooled odds ratio, along with 95% confidence interval. The meta-analysis of 3 studies with a total of 2414 patients with COVID-19 revealed no difference in the hazard for the development of a fatal course of COVID-19 between NSAID users and non-NSAID users (pooled hazard ratio = 0.86; 95% confidence interval 0.49–1.51). Therefore, NSAIDs should not be avoided in patients who are appropriately indicated during the COVID-19 pandemic.