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Course: Association Between Dexamethasone Treatment After Hospital Discharge for Patients With COVID-19 Infection and Rates of Hospital Readmission and Mortality

CME Credits: 1.00

Released: 2022-03-08

Key Points

Question Is continuing use of dexamethasone, 6 mg/d, at discharge for patients with COVID-19 who received less than 10 days of dexamethasone treatment during hospitalization associated with readmission or mortality after discharge?
Findings In a cohort of 1164 patients with COVID-19 who received less than 10 days of dexamethasone, 6 mg/d, during hospitalization, the rate of readmission or mortality within 14 days of discharge was 9.1% among patients who continued dexamethasone treatment compared with 11.4% among patients who did not. The difference was not statistically significant.
Meaning The findings of this study suggest that prescribing dexamethasone at discharge for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 who received less than 10 days of dexamethasone is not associated with a reduction in readmission or mortality.

Abstract

Importance Current guidelines recommend use of dexamethasone, 6 mg/d, up to 10 days or until discharge for patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Whether patients who received less than 10 days of corticosteroids during hospitalization for COVID-19 benefit from continuing treatment at discharge has not been determined.
Objective To assess whether continuing dexamethasone treatment at discharge is associated with reduced all-cause readmissions or mortality postdischarge.
Design, Setting, and Participants A retrospective cohort study was conducted at 15 medical centers within Kaiser Permanente Southern California. The population included adults who received less than 10 days of dexamethasone, 6 mg/d, until discharge during hospitalization for COVID-19 and were discharged alive between May 1 and September 30, 2020.
Exposures Continued dexamethasone treatment at discharge.
Main Outcomes and Measures All-cause readmissions or mortality within 14 days from discharge.
Results A total of 1164 patients with a median age of 55 (IQR, 44-66) years were identified. Most patients were of Hispanic ethnicity (822 [70.6%]) and male (674 [57.9%]) and required oxygen support during hospitalization (1048 [90.0%]). Of the 1164 patients, 692 (59.5%) continued dexamethasone, 6 mg/d, at discharge. A balanced cohort was created using propensity score and inverse probability of treatment weighting. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) for readmissions or mortality within 14 days was 0.87 (95% CI, 0.58-1.30) for patients who continued dexamethasone therapy at discharge compared with those who did not. Similar results were produced by a sensitivity analysis that restricted the treatment group to those who received exactly 10 days of dexamethasone (OR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.55-1.43) and by subgroup analyses stratified by the duration of dexamethasone treatment as an inpatient (1-3 days: OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.43-1.16; 4-9 days: OR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.48-2.12), oxygen requirement at discharge (room air: OR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.53-1.59; supplemental oxygen use: OR, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.42-1.37), and disease duration at discharge (-10 days: OR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.49-1.33; >10 days: OR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.48-1.86).
Conclusions and Relevance In this cohort study of patients with COVID-19, continuing treatment with dexamethasone, 6 mg/d, at discharge was not associated with a reduction in 14-day all-cause readmission or mortality. This finding suggests that dexamethasone should not be routinely prescribed beyond discharge for individuals with COVID-19.


Educational Objective
To identify the key insights or developments described in this article


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