Stroever SJ, Ostapenko D, Scatena R, Pusztai D, Coritt L, Frimpong AA, Nee P. Medication Use Among Patients With COVID-19 in a Large, National Dataset: Cerner Real-World Data™.
Clin Ther 2021;
43:e173-e196. [PMID:
33958234 PMCID:
PMC8049452 DOI:
10.1016/j.clinthera.2021.03.024]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2021] [Revised: 03/30/2021] [Accepted: 03/31/2021] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) required clinicians to use knowledge of therapeutic mechanisms of established drugs to piece together treatment regimens. The purpose of this study is to examine the trends in medication use among patients with COVID-19 across the United States using a national dataset.
METHODS
We conducted a cross-sectional study of the COVID-19 cohort in the Cerner Real-World Data warehouse, which includes deidentified patient information for encounters associated with COVID-19 from December 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020. The primary variables of interest were medications given to patients during their inpatient COVID-19 treatment. We also identified demographic characteristics, calculated the proportion of patients with each medication, and stratified data by demographic variables.
FINDINGS
Our sample included 51,169 inpatients from every region of the United States. Males and females were equally represented, and most patients were white and non-Hispanic. The largest proportion of patients were older than 45 years. Corticosteroids were used the most among all patients (56.5%), followed by hydroxychloroquine (17.4%), tocilizumab (3.1%), and lopinavir/ritonavir (1.1%). We found substantial variation in medication use by region, race, ethnicity, sex, age, and insurance status.
IMPLICATIONS
Variations in medication use are likely attributable to multiple factors, including the timing of the pandemic by region in the United States and processes by which medications are introduced and disseminated. This study is the first of its kind to assess trends in medication use in a national dataset and is the first large, descriptive study of pharmacotherapy in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. It provides an important glimpse into prescribing patterns during a pandemic.
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