Abstract: International Journal of Infectious Diseases 104 (2021) 7–14 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Infectious Diseases journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijid Association of prescribed medications with the risk of COVID-19 infection and severity among adults in South Korea Kyungmin Huha,1, Wonjun Jib,1, Minsun Kangc,1, Jinwook Hongc, Gi Hwan Baec , Rugyeom Leec , Yewon Nac, Jaehun Jungc,d,* a Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, 06351, South Korea Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, 05505, South Korea Artificial Intelligence and Big-Data Convergence Center, Gil Medical Center, Gachon University College of Medicine, Incheon, 21565, South Korea d Department of Preventive Medicine, Gachon University College of Medicine, Incheon, 21565, South Korea b c A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Received 16 September 2020 Received in revised form 15 December 2020 Accepted 15 December 2020 Objectives: Concerns have been expressed that some drugs may increase susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection. In contrast, other drugs have generated interest as potential therapeutic agents. Methods: All adults aged 18 years who were tested for COVID-19 were included. Exposure was defined as a prescription of study drugs which would have been continued until 7 days prior to test for COVID-19 or later. The outcome measures were the diagnosis of COVID-19 and severe COVID-19. Disease risk score matching and multiple logistic regression was used. Results: Matched claims and testing results were available for 219,961 subjects, of whom 7,341 (3.34%) were diagnosed with COVID-19. Patients were matched to 36,705 controls, and the subset of 878 patients of severe COVID-19 also matched with 1,927 mild-to-moderate patients. Angiotensin receptor blockers were not associated with either the diagnosis of COVID-19 (adjusted OR [aOR], 1.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.90–1.15) or severe disease (aOR, 1.11; 95% CI, 0.87–1.42). The use of hydroxychloroquine was not associated with a lower risk for COVID-19 (aOR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.53–1.66) or severe disease (aOR, 3.51; 95% CI, 0.76–16.22). Conclusions: In this national claims data-based case-control study, no commonly prescribed medications were associated with risk of COVID-19 infection or COVID-19 severity. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ncnd/4.0/). Keywords: COVID-19 Disease risk score Prophylaxis South Korea Treatment