ArticleBMC public health2026
Ursodeoxycholic acid treatment did not show protective effect for severe COVID-19 outcomes - a nationwide register study.
Article in BMC public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundUrsodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), used for treating cholestasis, was reported to protect against severe COVID-19 outcomes. We aimed to assess this potential effect using nationwide Swedish register data.
methodWe included all SARS-CoV-2 test-positive subjects aged ≥ 18 years during 2020–2023, with previous diagnosis of potentially UDCA-treated diseases, including primary biliary cholangitis, liver cirrhosis, autoimmune hepatitis, or cholangitis. Subjects who had filled a UDCA prescription within 6 months before testing positive were considered exposed. Subjects were followed from test-positivity to the earliest of analyzed outcome (COVID-19-related hospitalization, 30-day all-cause mortality, or COVID-19-related death), one year of follow-up, emigration, death, or end of 2023. Control for potential confounding (vaccination status, COVID-19 waves, prior comorbidities, and sociodemographics) was done by adjustment, propensity score weighting (PSW), and doubly robust analysis. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI).
resultsThe study cohort consisted of 833 UDCA-exposed and 3638 non-exposed individuals. The adjusted Cox analysis showed potentially decreased risks (non-significant) among UDCA-exposed for 30-day mortality (HR 0.62, 95%CI 0.34–1.13) and COVID-19 death (0.70, 0.37–1.32), but a smaller non-significant increased risk for hospitalization (1.19, 0.92–1.53). PSW achieved an adequate balance between exposed and non-exposed and showed similar results for 30-day mortality (0.78, 0.40–1.53), COVID-19 death (0.86, 0.43–1.71), and hospitalization (1.15, 0.81–1.61). The doubly robust method showed similar results as PSW.
conclusionThis study did not provide evidence supporting protective effects for severe COVID-19 outcomes. However, the results are limited by the small cohort of patients treated with UDCA.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.