We performed a secondary analysis of ACTT-2 randomized controlled trial and found that baricitinib was associated with a 50% reduction in secondary infections after controlling for baseline and post-randomization patient characteristics. This finding provides a novel mechanism of benefit for baricitinib and supports the safety profile of this immunomodulator for the treatment of COVID-19.
Background
Clinical trials initiated during emerging infectious disease outbreaks must quickly enroll participants to identify treatments to reduce morbidity and mortality. This may be at odds with enrolling a representative study population especially when the population affected is undefined.
Methods
We evaluated the utility of CDC COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET), COVID-19 Case Surveillance System (CCSS), and 2020 U.S. Census data to determine demographic representation in the four stages of the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT). We compared the cumulative proportion of participants by sex, race, ethnicity, and age enrolled at U.S. ACTT sites, with the respective 95% confidence intervals, to the reference data in forest plots.
Results
U.S. ACTT sites enrolled 3,509 adults hospitalized with COVID-19. When compared with COVID-NET, ACTT enrolled a similar or higher proportion of Hispanic or Latino and White participants depending on the stage, and a similar proportion of African American participants in all stages. In contrast, ACTT enrolled a higher proportion of these groups when compared with U.S. Census and CCSS. The proportion of participants ages 65 years was either similar or lower than COVID-NET and higher than CCSS and U.S. Census. The proportion of females enrolled in ACTT was lower than the proportion of females in the reference datasets.
Conclusions
While surveillance data of hospitalized cases may not be available early in an outbreak, it is a better comparator than U.S. Census data and surveillance of all cases, which may not reflect the population affected and at higher risk of severe disease.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.