Background: To assess the impact of opioid use disorder (OUD) on respiratory assistance, mechanical ventilation, intubation, and mortality in patients hospitalized in Washington State with SARS-CoV-2. Design: A retrospective observational chart review. Setting: Inpatient acute care hospitals in Washington State. Participants: Six thousand two hundred eighty-nine patients were hospitalized between January 2021 and February 2022 who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Main Outcome Measures: Propensity score matching was used to compare clinical outcomes between patients with OUD and patients without OUD. Outcomes of interest included intubation, mechanical ventilation, respiratory assistance, and mortality. Results: OUD was associated with increased odds of intubation in the unmatched cohort only (odds ratios = 1.65; 95% confidence intervals = 1.05–2.60). OUD was not associated with an increased odds of mechanical ventilation, respiratory assistance, or mortality. OUD was associated with several treatment options, with significantly fewer patients with OUD receiving those treatment options than patients without OUD. OUD was also linked to multiple high-risk comorbid conditions. Conclusions: Findings suggest that patients with OUD are at risk for worse outcomes when hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2. Additional studies are needed to further explore this link.
Neill-Gubitz et al. (Wed,) studied this question.