Retrospective 171 hospitalized patients in Taiwan, showing no signficant differences with famotidine, but a trend towards lower ICU admission. However, authors present only unadjusted results with groups that are not very comparable for ICU/mortality outcomes (e.g., 24% vs. 10% had ordinal score ≥5 at baseline), without mentioning the differences (they note only "confounding due of unobserved factors").
This study is excluded in meta
analysis:
significant unadjusted confounding factors.
Lin et al., 1 Jul 2023, retrospective, Taiwan, peer-reviewed, 4 authors, study period 1 May, 2021 - 31 August, 2021.
Impact of Famotidine Use on Clinical Outcomes of Hospitalized Patients with COVID-19 in Taiwan: A Retrospective Study
Hsiang-Ling Lin, Yu-Ning Winter, Lee, Fang-Ju Sun, Ming-Wei Cheng, S U M M A R Y
doi:10.6890/IJGE.202307_17(3).0008
The aim of this study was to investigate the association between famotidine treatment and severity, as well as mortality, for patients with COVID-19. In addition, to investigate whether this association was changed in cases of concomitant treatment with corticosteroids, remdesivir, clarithromycin, low molecular weight heparin, or statin. Material and methods: This is a retrospective cohort study conducted by analyzing electronic medical records of 171 hospitalized patients into the Infectious Disease Ward of a 2068-bed tertiary care medical center, with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 between May 01, 2021 and August 31, 2021. Patients were classified as receiving famotidine if they were treated with oral drug, at any dose, within ± 7 days of COVID-19 screening and/or hospital admission. Famotidine use was extracted directly from the electronic medical record. Results: Current study failed to identify famotidine as a protective factor associated with a significant reduction in the risk of in-hospital mortality (odds ratio 1.573, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.464-5.325, p = 0.467) or a significant reduction in the risk of ICU admission (odds ratio 0.547, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.286-1.045, p = 0.068). However, non-significant trend towards a lower rate of ICU admission in association with famotidine prescription was observed.
Conclusions: The results of this study reflect the real-world use of famotidine does not reduce the risk of in-hospital-mortality or ICU admission of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
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