Four hundred twelve patients were included in the study. Three hundred fourteen patients (76.3%) did not receive aspirin, while 98 patients (23.7%) received aspirin within 24 hours of admission or 7 days prior to admission. Aspirin use had a crude association with less mechanical ventilation (35.7% aspirin vs. 48.4% non-aspirin, p=0.03) and ICU admission (38.8% aspirin vs. 51.0% non-aspirin, p=0.04), but no crude association with in-hospital mortality (26.5% aspirin vs. 23.2% non-aspirin, p=0.51). After adjusting for 8 confounding variables, aspirin use was independently associated with decreased risk of mechanical ventilation (adjusted HR 0.56, 95% CI 0.37-0.85, p=0.007), ICU admission (adjusted HR 0.57, 95% CI 0.38-0.85, p=0.005), and in-hospital mortality (adjusted HR 0.53, 95% CI 0.31-0.90, p=0.02). There were no differences in major bleeding (p=0.69) or overt thrombosis (p=0.82) between aspirin users and non-aspirin users.
Conclusions: Aspirin use may be associated with improved outcomes in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. However, a sufficiently powered randomized controlled trial is needed to assess whether a causal relationship exists between aspirin use and reduced lung injury and mortality in COVID-19 patients.
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