Examining the Evidence on the Safety of Ibuprofen in Lower Respiratory Infections

COVID-19 Research Area(s): Epidemiology & Public Health, Vaccines & Treatments

Recent concerns have been raised on the safety of ibuprofen in patients with COVID-19. These concerns have been arisen from mechanistic studies as well as published studies that examined safety of ibuprofen and ibuprofen like drugs in respiratory infections. However, to date, this data has not been analyzed systematically without appropriate quality assessment. The objective of this research project is to systematically analyze data from published literature to evaluate the strength of the evidence on the safety of ibuprofen and other non-steroidal inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in lower respiratory infections. 

We will perform a systematic review of the literature and identify all studies that have assessed the use of ibuprofen in patients with lower respiratory infections. We will assess the quality of the evidence using established quality assessment tools. Data will be synthesized after quality assessment.