A bidimensional early intervention strategy of standard of care in combination with corticosteroids in elderly patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 (BEAT-COV study): a multicentre, open-label, randomized controlled trial

DOI record: { "DOI": "10.1186/s12879-026-12637-8", "ISSN": [ "1471-2334" ], "URL": "http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12879-026-12637-8", "alternative-id": [ "12637" ], "assertion": [ { "group": { "label": "Article History", "name": "ArticleHistory" }, "label": "Received", "name": "received", "order": 1, "value": "1 December 2025" }, { "group": { "label": "Article History", "name": "ArticleHistory" }, "label": "Accepted", "name": "accepted", "order": 2, "value": "16 January 2026" }, { "group": { "label": "Article History", "name": "ArticleHistory" }, "label": "First Online", "name": "first_online", "order": 3, "value": "6 March 2026" }, { "group": { "label": "Declarations", "name": "EthicsHeading" }, "name": "Ethics", "order": 1 }, { "group": { "label": "Ethics approval and consent to participate", "name": "EthicsHeading" }, "name": "Ethics", "order": 2, "value": "The protocol and all amendments were approved by the ethics committees of Huashan Hospital (Study Number 2023-065) and its collaborating hospitals. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants or their legal representatives before screening. All patient data were treated with strict confidentiality, and records were anonymized for analysis. All procedures involving human participants in this study were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committees, and in full compliance with the principles outlined in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its subsequent amendments." }, { "group": { "label": "Consent for publication", "name": "EthicsHeading" }, "name": "Ethics", "order": 3, "value": "Not applicable." }, { "group": { "label": "Competing interests", "name": "EthicsHeading" }, "name": "Ethics", "order": 4, "value": "The authors declare no competing interests." } ], "author": [ { "affiliation": [], "family": "Ruan", "given": "Qiaoling", "sequence": "first" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Zhang", "given": "Yanliang", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Zhao", "given": "Tingting", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Zhu", "given": "Feng", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Liu", "given": "Xi", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Cao", "given": "Ran", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Li", "given": "Yongzhong", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Zhang", "given": "Xiaoqiang", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Song", "given": "Wei", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Geng", "given": "Jiawei", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Zou", "given": "Deming", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Li", "given": "Yuanyuan", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Zhang", "given": "Liaoyun", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Wu", "given": "Chao", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Lan", "given": "Yuanbo", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Ding", "given": "Xiangchun", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Huang", "given": "Fuli", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Wu", "given": "Jiqin", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Sun", "given": "Feng", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Shao", "given": "Lingyun", "sequence": "additional" }, { "affiliation": [], "family": "Zhang", "given": "Wenhong", "sequence": "additional" } ], "container-title": "BMC Infectious Diseases", "container-title-short": "BMC Infect Dis", "content-domain": { "crossmark-restriction": false, "domain": [ "link.springer.com" ] }, "created": { "date-parts": [ [ 2026, 3, 6 ] ], "date-time": "2026-03-06T15:35:57Z", "timestamp": 1772811357000 }, "deposited": { "date-parts": [ [ 2026, 3, 6 ] ], "date-time": "2026-03-06T15:36:03Z", "timestamp": 1772811363000 }, "funder": [ { "award": [ "2023YFC3043400" ], "award-info": [ { "award-number": [ "2023YFC3043400" ] } ], "name": "National Key Research and Development Program of China" }, { "award": [ "SSIII-202402" ], "award-info": [ { "award-number": [ "SSIII-202402" ] } ], "name": "Shanghai Sci-Tech Inno Center for Infection & Immunity" } ], "indexed": { "date-parts": [ [ 2026, 3, 7 ] ], "date-time": "2026-03-07T05:41:15Z", "timestamp": 1772862075618, "version": "3.50.1" }, "is-referenced-by-count": 0, "issued": { "date-parts": [ [ 2026, 3, 6 ] ] }, "language": "en", "license": [ { "URL": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0", "content-version": "tdm", "delay-in-days": 0, "start": { "date-parts": [ [ 2026, 3, 6 ] ], "date-time": "2026-03-06T00:00:00Z", "timestamp": 1772755200000 } }, { "URL": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0", "content-version": "am", "delay-in-days": 0, "start": { "date-parts": [ [ 2026, 3, 6 ] ], "date-time": "2026-03-06T00:00:00Z", "timestamp": 1772755200000 } } ], "link": [ { "URL": "https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12879-026-12637-8", "content-type": "text/html", "content-version": "vor", "intended-application": "text-mining" } ], "member": "297", "original-title": [], "prefix": "10.1186", "published": { "date-parts": [ [ 2026, 3, 6 ] ] }, "published-online": { "date-parts": [ [ 2026, 3, 6 ] ] }, "publisher": "Springer Science and Business Media LLC", "reference": [ { "DOI": "10.1016/S2213-2600(23)00217-5", "author": "T Burki", "doi-asserted-by": "publisher", "first-page": "588", "issue": "7", "journal-title": "Lancet Respir Med", "key": "12637_CR1", "unstructured": "Burki T. 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