TOPLINE
Oseltamivir treatment within 6 hours of a positive influenza test was associated with reduced risk for hospitalization among outpatient veterans.
METHODOLOGY
- Researchers emulated a target randomized controlled trial using data from the Veterans Health Administration electronic health record, including adult veterans diagnosed with influenza from October 2022 to January 2023 and December 2023 to March 2024.
- A total of 28,920 veterans were included, of whom 12,185 received oseltamivir within 6 hours of diagnosis and 16,735 did not receive oseltamivir within this period.
- The primary outcome was any acute hospitalization through day 10; the secondary outcomes were ICU admission through day 10 or all-cause mortality through day 30.
- Analysis employed inverse probability of treatment weighting to balance baseline characteristics between groups.
TAKEAWAY
- Oseltamivir treatment was associated with a lower risk for any hospitalization at 10 days compared with no treatment (risk ratio [RR], 0.55; 95% CI, 0.49-0.61).
- The 10-day incidence of ICU admission was lower in the treated group than in the untreated group (RR, 0.47; 95% CI, 0.35-0.62).
- The 30-day risk for death was similar between the two groups.
IN PRACTICE
“[The study] results show meaningful reductions in hospitalization and ICU admission risk in this patient population and support the benefits of oseltamivir in the outpatient setting,” the authors wrote.
SOURCE
The study was led by Lei Yan, Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program Clinical Epidemiology Research Center, Veterans Affairs Connecticut Health Care System in West Haven, Connecticut. It was published online on August 24 in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
LIMITATIONS
Symptom onset date could not be captured. Completion of recommended treatment could not be verified. Residual confounding may persist despite careful emulation of a randomized target trial.
DISCLOSURES
The study was supported by the US Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program and funded in part by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, and the US Food and Drug Administration. The authors reported no relevant conflicts of interest.
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
