Current guidelines recommend use of dexamethasone, 6 mg/d, up to 10 days or until discharge for patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Whether patients who received less than 10 days of corticosteroids during hospitalization for COVID-19 benefit from continuing treatment at discharge has not been determined.

In this cohort study of patients with COVID-19 infection discharged from hospitals, continuing dexamethasone, 6 mg/d, at discharge for patients who received less than 10 days of dexamethasone, 6 mg/d, during hospitalization was not associated with a reduction in 14-day readmissions or mortality.

Our findings suggest that dexamethasone, short of other indications, should not be routinely prescribed beyond discharge for treatment in patients with COVID-19.

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