TY - JOUR
AU - Rentsch, Christopher T.
AU - DeVito, Nicholas J.
AU - Mackenna, Brian
AU - Morton, Caroline E.
AU - Bhaskaran, Krishnan
AU - Brown, Jeremy P.
AU - Schultze, Anna
AU - Hulme, William
AU - Croker, Richard
AU - Walker, Alex J.
AU - Williamson, Elizabeth J.
AU - Bates, Chris J.
AU - Bacon, Sebastian C.J.
AU - Mehrkar, Amir
AU - Curtis, Helen J.
AU - Evans, David
AU - Wing, Kevin
AU - Inglesby, Peter
AU - Mathur, Rohini
AU - Drysdale, Henry
AU - Wong, Angel Y.S.
AU - McDonald, Helen I.
AU - Cockburn, Jonathan
AU - Forbes, Harriet
AU - Parry, John
AU - Hester, Frank
AU - Harper, Sam
AU - Smeeth, Liam
AU - Douglas, Ian J.
AU - Dixon, William G.
AU - Evans, Stephen J.W.
AU - Tomlinson, Laurie
AU - Goldacre, Ben
PY - 2021
DA - January
TI - Hydroxychloroquine treatment does not reduce COVID-19 mortality: underdosing to the wrong patients? – Authors' reply
JO - The Lancet Rheumatology
EP - E173
VL - 3
IS - 3
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/S2665-9913(21)00030-8
AB - We thank Luis Ayerbe and colleagues for the opportunity to further discuss our Article.The choice of our study population—individuals with rheumatoid arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus—was made to minimise the potential for confounding by indication when estimating the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine use rather than investigating how to prevent severe COVID-19 in this population. The key question is whether our study had sufficient statistical power to detect a real difference in mortality, if one existed? As stated in the Article, the CIs around our key estimate (hazard ratio 1·03 [95% CI 0·80–1·33]) suggested that we could exclude substantial benefit, although a modest benefit or harm on a relative scale could not be ruled out; therefore, trials were warranted. Ayerbe and colleagues suggest that hydroxychloroquine might be differently effective or ineffective in specific demographics: we note that 25% of those in our study were aged over 75 years and, as reported, we found no evidence of effect modification by age.
PB - Elsevier
UR - https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/d58549a7-19c4-422e-a6a6-41be02581fcf
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
ER