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The work was supported by unrestricted grants from the Institut de Investigacio ' Sanita`ria Pere Virgili (IISPV) and Xarxa de Unitat de Lipids i Ateriosclerosis (XULA) de Catalunya.

Analysis of institutional authors

Masana, LCorresponding AuthorCorreig, EAuthorRodriguez-Borjabad, CAuthorNaf, SAuthorPlana, NAuthor

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February 21, 2022
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Effect of statin therapy on SARS-CoV-2 infection-related mortality in hospitalized patients

Publicated to:European Heart Journal-Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy. 8 (2): 157-164 - 2022-03-01 8(2), DOI: 10.1093/ehjcvp/pvaa128

Authors: Masana, Lluis; Correig, Eudald; Rodriguez-Borjabad, Celia; Anoro, Eva; Antonio Arroyo, Juan; Jerico, Carlos; Pedragosa, Angels; la Miret, Marcel; Naf, Silvia; Pardo, Anna; Perea, Veronica; Perez-Bernalte, Rosa; Plana, Nuria; Ramirez-Montesinos, Rafael; Royuela, Meritxell; Soler, Cristina; Urquizu-Padilla, Maria; Zamora, Alberto; Pedro-Botet, Juan

Affiliations

Barcelona Autonomous Univ, Univ Hosp Mar, Lipid Unit, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Barcelona Autonomous Univ, Univ Hosp Santa Creu & St Pau, Lipid Unit, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Barcelona Autonomous Univ, Univ Hosp Vall Hebron, Lipid Unit, Barcelona, Spain - Author
CIBERDEM, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, LIPIDCAS, University Hospital Sant Joan IISPV, Reus, Spain. - Author
Consorci Sanitari Terrassa, Lipid Unit, Terrassa, Spain - Author
Hosp Blanes, Lipid Unit, Corporacio Salut Maresme & Selva, Blanes, Spain - Author
Hosp Delfos, Internal Med Dept, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Hosp Moises Broggi, Lipid Unit, Consorci Sanitari Integral, St Joan Despi, Spain - Author
Hosp Mutua Terrasa, Lipid Unit, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Hosp Santa Caterina, Lipid Unit, Girona, Spain - Author
Hosp St Pau & Santa Tecla, LIPIDCAS, Tarragona, Spain - Author
Hosp Vendrell, LIPIDCAS, El Vendrell, Spain - Author
Hosp Verge Cinta, Endocrinol Dept, LIPIDCAS, Tortosa, Spain - Author
Internal Medicine Department, Hospital Delfos, Barcelona, Spain. - Author
Lipid Unit, ALTHAIA, Xarxa Assistencial Universitària de Manresa, Spain. - Author
Lipid Unit, Consorci Sanitari Terrassa, Spain. - Author
Lipid Unit, Corporació de Salut del Maresme i la Selva, Hospital de Blanes, Spain. - Author
Lipid Unit, Hospital Moises Broggi, Consorci Sanitari Integral, Sant Joan Despí, Spain. - Author
Lipid Unit, Hospital Mutua Terrasa, Barcelona, Spain. - Author
Lipid Unit, Hospital Santa Caterina, Girona, Spain. - Author
Lipid Unit, University Hospital del Mar, Barcelona Autonomous University, Barcelona, Spain. - Author
Lipid Unit, University Hospital Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona Autonomous University, Barcelona, Spain. - Author
Lipid Unit, University Hospital Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona Autonomous University, Barcelona, Spain. - Author
LIPIDCAS, Endocrinology Department, Hospital Verge de la Cinta, Tortosa, Spain. - Author
LIPIDCAS, Endocrinology Department, University Hospital Joan XXIII, IISPV, CIBERDEM, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain. - Author
LIPIDCAS, Hospital del Vendrell, El Vendrell, Spain. - Author
LIPIDCAS, Hospital Sant Pau i Santa Tecla, Tarragona, Spain. - Author
LIPIDCAS, Pius Hospital Valls, Valls, Spain. - Author
Pius Hosp Valls, LIPIDCAS, Valls, Spain - Author
Univ Rovira & Virgili, Inst Invest Sanitaria Pere Virgili, Stat Dept, Reus, Spain - Author
Univ Rovira & Virgili, Univ Hosp Joan XXIII, Endocrinol Dept, CIBERDEM,LIPIDCAS,IISPV, Tarragona, Spain - Author
Univ Rovira & Virgili, Univ Hosp St Joan IISPV, LIPIDCAS, CIBERDEM, Reus, Spain - Author
Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Statistics Department, Institut Investigació Sanitaria Pere Virgili, Reus, Spain. - Author
Xarxa Assistencial Univ Manresa, Lipid Unit, ALTHAIA, Barcelona, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Assessing the effect of statin therapy (ST) at hospital admission for COVID-19 on in-hospital mortality.Retrospective observational study. Patients taking statins were 11 years older and had significantly more comorbidities than patients who were not taking statins. A genetic matching (GM) procedure was performed prior to analysis of the mortality risk. A Cox proportional hazards model was used for the cause-specific hazard (CSH) function, and a competing-risks Fine and Gray (FG) model was also used to study the direct effects of statins on risk. Data from reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction-confirmed 2157 SARS-CoV-2-infected patients [1234 men, 923 women; age: 67 y/o (IQR 54-78)] admitted to the hospital were retrieved from the clinical records in anonymized manner. Three hundred and fifty-three deaths occurred. Five hundred and eighty-one patients were taking statins. Univariate test after GM showed a significantly lower mortality rate in patients on ST than the matched non-statin group (19.8% vs. 25.4%, χ2 with Yates continuity correction: P = 0.027). The mortality rate was even lower in patients (n = 336) who maintained their statin treatments during hospitalization compared with the GM non-statin group (17.4%; P = 0.045). The Cox model applied to the CSH function [HR = 0.58(CI: 0.39-0.89); P = 0.01] and the competing-risks FG model [HR = 0.60 (CI: 0.39-0.92); P = 0.02] suggest that statins are associated with reduced COVID-19-related mortality.A lower SARS-CoV-2 infection-related mortality was observed in patients treated with ST prior to hospitalization. Statin therapy should not be discontinued due to the global concern of the pandemic or in patients hospitalized for COVID-19.Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author(s) 2020. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Keywords

cardiovascular riskcovid-19mortalitystatinsAgedCardiovascular riskCovid-19FemaleHospital mortalityHumansHydroxymethylglutaryl-coa reductase inhibitorsMaleMortalityPandemicsSars-cov-2Statins

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal European Heart Journal-Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2022, it was in position 26/278, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Pharmacology & Pharmacy. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 6.37. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 3.98 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 19.47 (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-05, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 53
  • Scopus: 35
  • Europe PMC: 52
  • Google Scholar: 72

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-05:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 61.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 84 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 249.28.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 121 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 25 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Masana Marín, Luis) .

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Masana Marín, Luis.