The association of prescription of methotrexate and folic acid with COVID-19-related death in the UK Biobank
| Unadjusted | Model 1 | Model 2 | ||||
| OR, (95% CI) | P value | OR, (95% CI) | P value | OR, (95% CI) | P value | |
| Neither folic acid nor methotrexate, N=363 821 | 1.0 | – | 1.0 | – | 1.0 | – |
| Folic acid only, N=12 433 | 5.14 (4.23 to 6.24) | <0.001 | 2.91 (2.38 to 3.55) | <0.001 | 2.64 (2.15 to 3.24) | <0.001 |
| Methotrexate and folic acid, N=3952 | 1.47 (0.81 to 2.67) | 0.21 | 1.26 (0.70 to 2.30) | 0.44 | 1.07 (0.57 to 1.98) | 0.84 |
Model 1 adjusted for age group, sex, ethnicity, Townsend deprivation index, body mass index, smoking status.
Model 2 is model 1 plus adjustment by the presence of rheumatoid arthritis, sickle cell disease, use of statins, anticonvulsants and iron supplementation.
*There were no deaths in the group of participants taking only methotrexate without folate.