Incidence and Mortality Associated with Cardiovascular Medication among Hypertensive COVID-19 Patients in South Korea
Tak Kyu Oh, Hyoung-Won Cho, Jung-Won Suh, MD In-Ae Song
Yonsei Medical Journal, doi:10.3349/ymj.2021.62.7.577
Purpose: We aimed to investigate whether the use of cardiovascular drugs in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with hypertension as a comorbidity has a significant effect on the incidence and associated mortality rate of COVID-19. Materials and Methods: Data covering the period between January 1, 2020 and June 4, 2020 were extracted from The National Health Insurance Service-COVID-19 (NHIS-COVID-19) database in South Korea and analyzed as a population-based cohort study. Results: A total of 101657 hypertensive adults aged 20 years or older were included for final analysis. Among them, 1889 patients (1.9%) were diagnosed with COVID-19 between January 1, 2020 and June 4, 2020, and hospital mortality occurred in 193 patients (10.2%). In a multivariable model, the use of beta-blockers was associated with an 18% lower incidence of COVID-19 [odds ratio (OR): 0.82, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.69-0.98; p=0.029]. Among 1889 hypertensive patients diagnosed with COVID-19, the use of a calcium channel blocker (CCB) was associated with a 42% lower hospital mortality rate (OR: 0.58, 95% CI: 0.38-0.89; p=0.012). The use of other cardiovascular drugs was not associated with the incidence of COVID-19 or hospital mortality rate among COVID-19 patients. Similar results were observed in all 328374 adults in the NHIS-COVID-19 database, irrespective of the presence of hypertension.
Conclusion: In South Korea, beta-blockers exhibited potential benefits in lowering the incidence of COVID-19 among hypertensive patients. Furthermore, CCBs may lower the hospital mortality rate among hypertensive COVID-19 patients. These findings were also applied to the general adult population, regardless of hypertension.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS Conceptualization: Tak Kyu Oh and In-Ae Song. Data curation: Hyoung-Won Cho and Jung-Won Suh. Formal analysis: Tak Kyu Oh. Investigation: Hyoung-Won Cho and Tak Kyu Oh. Methodology: Tak Kyu Oh and In-Ae Song. Supervision:In-Ae Song. Validation: Tak Kyu Oh and In-Ae Song. Visualization: Hyoung-Won Cho and Jung-Won Suh. Writing-original draft: Tak Kyu Oh. Writing-review & editing: Jung-Won Suh and In-Ae Song. Approval of final manuscript: all authors.
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