Patient information and treatment: 2104 patients received treatment, compared with 4321 patients in control group getting (see eligibility and randomization child node for detail)

“Overall, 454 (21.6%) patients allocated dexamethasone and 1065 (24.6%) patients allocated usual care died within 28 days (age- adjusted rate ratio [RR] 0.83; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.74 to 0.92; P<0.001).”

Level of respiratory support significantly associated with mortality rates, with largest reduction among those with mechanical ventilation, moderate reduction in those with oxygen only, and no significant reduction for those without oxygen (see 28-day mortality results node for more detail)

Use of DEX associated with shorter hospitalization duration (see duration of hospitalization child node)

Among those not using mechanical ventilation at baseline, fewer patients reached the composite outcome of ventilation or death among those receiving DEX (RR 0.91, 95% CI (0.82, 1.00), p=0.049) with stronger effects in those using oxygen (test for trend p=0.008)

Risk of new mechanical ventilation was lower in those receiving DEX compared to control (RR 0.76, 95% CI (0.61, 0.96), p=0.021)

Results summarized in Table 2 node