Table 4

Ordinal regression models examining the association between individual medications and more severe COVID-19 outcomes in individuals with SLE

	Number of individuals taking medication prior to COVID-19 diagnosis with observed outcome	Unadjusted n=1606	P value	Age-adjusted and sex- adjusted n=1606	P value	Fully adjusted model† n=1606	P value	Fully adjusted model +confirmed COVID-19‡ n=1283	P value
		OR (95% CI)	P value	OR (95% CI)	P value	OR (95% CI)	P value	OR (95% CI)	P value
Methotrexate	173	0.71 (0.50 to 1.01)	0.06	0.67 (0.47 to 0.97)	0.032*	0.71 (0.43 to 1.16)	0.17	0.71 (0.40 to 1.25)	0.23
Azathioprine	235	0.88 (0.66 to 1.19)	0.42	0.95 (0.70 to 1.29)	0.75	0.87 (0.57 to 1.34)	0.53	0.89 (0.54 to 1.47)	0.65
Mycophenolate/Mycophenolic acid	332	1.20 (0.93 to 1.55)	0.15	1.36 (1.05 to 1.76)	0.021*	1.08 (0.73 to 1.59)	0.72	1.27 (0.82 to 1.98)	0.29
Cyclophosphamide	29	1.92 (0.95 to 3.91)	0.07	2.55 (1.23 to 5.28)	0.012*	–	–	–	–
Rituximab	68	1.62 (1.00 to 2.63)	0.049*	1.69 (1.04 to 2.75)	0.036*	1.56 (0.84 to 2.90)	0.16	1.91 (0.97 to 3.79)	0.063
Belimumab	104	0.52 (0.32 to 0.86)	0.011*	0.51 (0.31 to 0.85)	<0.001**	0.66 (0.34 to 1.28)	0.22	0.65 (0.31 to 1.34)	0.24

*P<0.05; **p<0.01.
†Model adjusted for age, sex, renal disease, hypertension/cardiovascular disease, comorbidity count, disease activity, region, time period, glucocorticoid and and other DMARD medication categories; random effects applied for country and time. Reference group=antimalarial only.
‡Confirmed cases were defined as having a diagnosis made by PCR, antibody or antigen test or a CT scan.
DMARD, disease-modifying antirheumatic drug; SLE, systemic lupus erythematosus.