Oral antithrombotics see limited value in nursing home residents with COVID-19

Oral antithrombotic therapies (OATs) do not seem to confer survival benefits in nursing home (NH) residents with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a new study has shown.

Researchers performed a retrospective case series including 101 NH residents (mean age, 85±8.1 years; 32.7 percent male) with COVID-19, as confirmed by real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. More than half (51.5 percent) were given OATs.

Mortality rate was high at 47.5 percent, and non-survivors were more often male. Unadjusted analysis found that the use of OATs appeared to cut mortality risk in the study participants (odds ratio [OR], 0.89, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.41–1.95). This effect was attenuated upon multivariable adjustments (OR, 1.04, 95 percent CI, 0.39–2.77).

Age, comorbidities, hypertension, and the use of other medications did not seem to affect mortality.

On the other hand, being male emerged as a significant risk factor for mortality (OR, 4.79, 95 percent CI, 1.74–13.18). Moreover, male patients who died were relatively younger than those who recovered (82.2 vs 85.2 years), and as compared to female residents who died (89.1 years; p<0.001).

“Strikingly, almost half of the population had died within two weeks after the diagnosis of COVID-19 was made. This was particularly the case for male residents, and this risk was not attenuated after adjustment for OAT as well as other potential confounders,” researchers said.

Future studies are needed to evaluate the value of compressive stockings and low-molecular-weight heparin in NH residents with COVID-19, they added.