BMC Pulmonary Medicine (Mar 2023)

The effect of anti-coagulation dosage on the outcome of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Ethiopia: a multi-center retrospective cohort study

  • Abel Girma Tessema,
  • Zekarias Masresha Mengiste,
  • Tsegaye Gebreyes Hundie,
  • Hailemichael Getachew Yosef,
  • Dawit Kebede Huluka,
  • Abebaw Bekele Seyoum,
  • Hannibal Kassahun Abate,
  • Rawleigh Craig Howe

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12890-023-02375-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 23, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Abstract Background Studies have indicated that hospitalized COVID-19 patients benefit from anticoagulation therapy in terms of survival; however, there is an ongoing controversy over the optimum anticoagulant dosage. This study aimed to compare clinical outcomes between patients who received prophylactic anticoagulation and those who received therapeutic anticoagulation. Methods A multi-center retrospective cohort study was conducted to determine the impact of anticoagulation dosage in hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Ethiopia. The primary outcome measure was in-hospital mortality, and it was assessed using multivariable binary logistic regression and covariate-adjusted Cox Proportional Hazard model. For critical and severe COVID-19 patients, subgroup analyses were performed using multivariable binary logistic regression model and multivariable Cox regression models. Result A total of 472 hospitalized COVID-19 patients were included in this study, of whom 235 (49.8%) received therapeutic anticoagulation and 237 (50.2%) received prophylactic dose. The demographic and baseline clinical characteristics were roughly similar between the groups. After adjustment for several confounders, in critical COVID-19 subgroup, therapeutic dose of anticoagulation was significantly associated with a higher inpatient mortality (AOR 2.27, 95% CI, 1.18—4.35, p = 0.013), whereas in severe COVID-19 subgroup, anticoagulation dosage was not associated with inpatient mortality (OR, 1.02, 95% CI, 0.45 – 2.33, p = 0.958). In severe COVID-19 patient group however, the incidence of thrombosis was slightly lower in the therapeutic group as compared with prophylactic group although the difference was not statistically significant (AOR 0.15, 95% CI, 0.02 – 1.20, p = 0.073). Although there were only six major bleeding events in this study, all these were recorded from patients in the therapeutic subgroup, making the difference statistically significant (p = 0.013). Conclusion Although this study is limited by its observational design, our results are not consistent with current recommendations on anti-coagulation dose for hospitalized patients with COVID-19, necessitating the need for RCT in resource limited settings.

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