Factors associated with COVID-19-related death in people with rheumatic diseases: results from the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance physician-reported registry

What is it about?

To date, most available data on outcomes for people with rheumatic diseases infected with SARS-CoV-2 come from single centre or single country case series or from one large international registry; the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance (GRA) physician registry. The first GRA publication identified factors associated with higher odds of COVID-19 hospitalisation, including older age, presence of comorbidities and higher dosages of glucocorticoids (≥10 mg/day of prednisolone equivalent). Clinical outcome information on patients with COVID-19 who have rheumatic disease therefore remains limited, particularly with regard to factors associated with COVID-19-related death.

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Why is it important?

In this analysis of 3729 patients with rheumatic diseases, older age, male sex, and cardiovascular and chronic lung disease were associated with COVID-19-related death. Disease-specific factors, namely, moderate/high disease activity and certain medications (rituximab, sulfasalazine and immunosuppressants (as opposed to immunomodulators like disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs)) were also associated with COVID-19-related death.