In a new study from Kaiser Permanente, researchers found in people hospitalized with COVID-19, continuing treatment with dexamethasone at discharge could not reduce 14-day all-cause readmission or death.
They examined whether continuing dexamethasone treatment at discharge is linked to reduced all-cause readmissions or mortality among 1,164 adults who received less than 10 days of dexamethasone until discharge during hospitalization for COVID-19.
The researchers found that 59.5% of the patients continued dexamethasone at discharge.
The adjusted odds ratio was 0.87 for readmissions or mortality within 14 days for patients who continued versus did not continue dexamethasone therapy at discharge.
In an analysis that restricted the treatment group to those who received exactly 10 days of dexamethasone, similar results were produced.
The results were also similar in analyses stratified by duration of dexamethasone treatment as an inpatient, oxygen requirement at discharge, and disease duration at discharge.
Overall, the findings suggest that dexamethasone, short of other indications, should not be routinely prescribed beyond discharge for treatment in patients with COVID-19.
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The study is published in JAMA Network Open and was conducted by Cheng-Wei Huang et al.
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