Pre-hospital antiplatelet medication use on COVID-19 disease severity.

The study only included patients who were already hospitalized, so it cannot determine whether antiplatelet medications prevent mild cases from becoming severe enough to require admission. Most patients in the antiplatelet group were taking only aspirin, meaning the study could not assess whether dual antiplatelet therapy or newer P2Y12 inhibitors might offer different benefits. As a retrospective study, patients took varying doses of medication for different lengths of time, and the researchers could not control for these inconsistencies. The authors note that unmeasured factors contributing to the severity of illness in antiplatelet users may have masked any potential protective effect of the drugs.

The study was supported by an extramural grant from the National Institutes of Health. No other conflicts of interest are reported in the provided text.

Do not conclude that antiplatelet medications are harmful based on the unadjusted data showing higher mortality in users. The apparent increased risk disappeared entirely after adjusting for the fact that patients taking these medications were older and had significantly more cardiovascular and metabolic disease.