Background

Prolonged health problems are common after COVID-19, but little is known about whether treatments for acute COVID-19 improve long-term outcomes.

Aim

To investigate whether systemic corticosteroids administered for acute COVID-19 affect health outcomes at 1 year post-hospital discharge.

Methods

Data from a UK multicentre cohort study of survivors post-hospital with COVID-19 (PHOSP-COVID) was used to compare health outcomes at 1 year between patients administered steroids for acute COVID-19 or not. All included patients received at least supplemental oxygen during admission. Outcomes included health-related quality of life (EQ5D-5L), FACIT fatigue score, and measures of physical performance and organ function. Propensity weighting was used to allow comparison between treatment groups.

Results

1226 patients discharged between 1/2/20 and 31/3/21 were included: 64.3% male, mean (SD) age 60.1 (11.6) years and 18.9% received invasive mechanical ventilation. 731 (59.6%) received steroids. Balance between treatment groups was achieved (standardised mean difference <0.1) using weighting by the inverse of propensity for treatment. At 1 year there were no differences in any outcome between patients receiving steroids or not (Table 1).

Conclusion

Systemic corticosteroids administered during acute COVID-19 do not affect rates of persistent health problems 1 year after hospital discharge.