Objective: This study is to evaluate the effect of proton-pump inhibitors on the course of COVID-19 .

Methods: Clinical data of moderate COVID-19 patients admitted to the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center for treatment from January 20, 2020, to March 16, 2020, were collected . A retrospective study was conducted and the patients were divided into two groups according to whether they used proton-pump inhibitors or not . The differences in SARS-CoV-2 clearance and hospital stay between the two groups were compared by Cox proportional hazards (PH) regression models and the propensity score matching method .

Results: A total of 154 patients with moderate COVID-19 were included in this study, including 80 males (51.9 %), 35 patients (22.7 %) in the proton-pump inhibitor group, and 119 patients (77.3 %) in the control group . In the proton-pump inhibitor group and the control group, the duration of the SARS-CoV-2 clearance was 7 days (95% CI , 6-9) and 7 days (95% CI , 6-11), and the duration of the hospital stay was 21 days (95% CI , 16-25) and 20 days (95% CI , 15-26), respectively . There was no significant difference between the both groups in the cumulative incidence of the SARS-CoV-2 clearance and the discharge, and the same results were obtained after the propensity score matching, all P> 0.05 . There was no significant association between the use of proton-pump inhibitors and the duration of SARS-CoV-2 clearance, according to univariate analysis (HR , 1.309; 95% CI , 0.893-1.918) and multivariate analysis (HR , 1.575; 95% CI , 0.993-2.499). There was no significant association between the use of proton-pump inhibitors and the duration of hospital stay for COVID-19, according to univariate analysis (HR , 1.044; 95% CI , 0.714-1.528) and multivariate analysis (HR , 1.064; 95% CI , 0.651-1.740). Conclusion: The use of proton-pump inhibitors has no effect on prolonging or shortening the course of adults hospitalized with COVID-19.