HIV infection and COVID-19 death: a population-based cohort analysis of UK primary care data and linked national death registrations within the OpenSAFELY platform

  1. Krishnan Bhaskaran
  2. Christopher T Rentsch
  3. Brian MacKenna
  4. Anna Schultze
  5. Amir Mehrkar
  6. Chris J Bates
  7. Rosalind M Eggo
  8. Caroline E Morton
  9. Sebastian C J Bacon
  10. Peter Inglesby
  11. Ian J Douglas
  12. Alex J Walker
  13. Helen I McDonald
  14. Jonathan Cockburn
  15. Elizabeth J Williamson
  16. David Evans
  17. Harriet J Forbes
  18. Helen J Curtis
  19. William J Hulme
  20. John Parry
  21. Frank Hester
  22. Sam Harper
  23. Stephen J W Evans
  24. Liam Smeeth
  25. Ben Goldacre

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Abstract

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.08.07.20169490: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    NIH rigor criteria are not applicable to paper type.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Strengths and limitations: Our study was large, so that even in a setting with a relatively low prevalence of HIV, we were able to investigate the role of HIV accounting for demographic characteristics, lifestyle-related factors including BMI and smoking, and relevant comorbidities. We tested the robustness of our findings to different missing data approaches and to non-proportional hazards. We investigated effect modification by key covariates, and were able to detect differences by ethnicity. However the relatively small number of deaths among those with HIV, reflecting the young age distribution of the HIV group, prevented definitive conclusions about the role of comorbidities, and changes in the role of HIV over time. We noted a suggestion of a larger association between HIV and COVID-19 death early in the epidemic. If confirmed, this might suggest a higher risk of infection before widespread social distancing was introduced, which could have reduced if people living with HIV were highly adherent to social distancing guidance; furthermore, some people living with HIV initially received incorrect government advice that they were considered in the highest risk category and should take extra “shielding” precautions, which might have further reduced any HIV-associated risk.28 We could not rule out that the observed trend over time reflected chance variation; analysis of pre-mortality indicators of severe disease, such as hospitalisation, would have greater statistical power t...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases

    Norman Hearst

    Review 1: "HIV infection and COVID-19 death: population-based cohort analysis of UK primary care data and linked national death registrations within the OpenSAFELY platform"

    This study is an important effort to add to the literature on COVID-19 mortality rates among HIV-positive individuals; however, the extremely small relevant sample size, and a number of confounders, make its specific policy implications suspect.

  3. Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases

    Caroline Sabin

    Review 2: "HIV infection and COVID-19 death: population-based cohort analysis of UK primary care data and linked national death registrations within the OpenSAFELY platform"

    This study is an important effort to add to the literature on COVID-19 mortality rates among HIV-positive individuals; however, the extremely small relevant sample size, and a number of confounders, make its specific policy implications suspect.

  5. Version published to 10.1016/s2352-3018(20)30305-2
  6. Version published to 10.1101/2020.08.07.20169490v1 on medRxiv