Prehospitalization Proton Pump Inhibitor (PPI) use and Clinical Outcomes in COVID-19

https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.12.20151084

The association between prehospitalization PPI use and clinical outcomes among hospitalized COVID-19 patients was studied.  In the study, 15.6% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients were on PPIs at home. Mortality among PPI-users was 2.3 times higher than non-users, along with 2.5 times higher risk of mechanical ventilation. This relationship existed even after adjusting for confounding variables.These results warrant further investigation in prospective studies to evaluate if PPI-induced hypochlorhydria is associated with worse outcomes, including mortality because of the omnipresence of ACE-2 in the gastrointestinal tract.