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Prevalence of Comorbidities in COVID-19 Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Ashkan Baradaran1, Mohammad H Ebrahimzadeh1, Aslan Baradaran2
1Orthopedic Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Insights
Hypertension is a key comorbidity linked to severe COVID-19 symptoms. While other conditions like diabetes are common, they don't appear to be prerequisites for severe illness, unlike hypertension.
Area of Science:
- Epidemiology
- Infectious Diseases
- Public Health
Background:
- Assessing comorbidity prevalence in COVID-19 patients is crucial for understanding disease severity.
- Comorbidities may influence the risk of severe symptoms in confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the prevalence of various comorbidities among individuals diagnosed with COVID-19.
- To identify which comorbidities are associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms.
Main Methods:
- A systematic literature search was conducted up to April 7, 2020, reviewing 33 studies.
- Prevalence data for hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and others were extracted.
- A single-arm meta-analysis using a random-effect model was performed.
Main Results:
- The study included COVID-19 patients with a mean age of 51 years; 55% were male.
- Hypertension was the most prevalent comorbidity (21%), followed by diabetes mellitus (11%).
- Other reported comorbidities included cardiovascular disease (5.8%), chronic kidney disease (3.6%), and smoking (8.7%).
Conclusions:
- COVID-19 affects diverse populations regardless of health status.
- While age and comorbidities may increase risk, hypertension appears to be a significant factor for severe COVID-19.
- Comorbidities are not universally required for symptomatic or severe COVID-19 infection.
Background:
In this study, we aimed to assess the prevalence of comorbidities in the confirmed COVID-19 patients. This might help showing which comorbidity might pose the patients at risk of more severe symptoms.
Methods:
We searched all relevant databases on April 7th, 2020 using the keywords ("novel coronavirus" OR COVID-19 OR SARS-CoV-2 OR Coronavirus) AND (comorbidities OR clinical characteristics OR epidemiologic*). We reviewed 33 papers' full text out of 1053 papers. There were 32 papers from China and 1 from Taiwan. There was no language or study level limit. Prevalence of comorbidities including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease, chronic kidney disease, malignancies, cerebrovascular diseases, chronic liver disease and smoking were extracted to measure the pooled estimates. We used OpenMeta and used random-effect model to do a single arm meta-analysis.
Results:
The mean age of the diagnosed patients was 51 years. The male to female ratio was 55 to 45. The most prevalent finding in the confirmed COVID-19 patients was hypertension, which was found in 1/5 of the patients (21%). Other most prevalent finding was diabetes mellitus (DM) in 11%, cerebrovascular disease in 2.4%, cardiovascular disease in 5.8%, chronic kidney disease in 3.6%, chronic liver disease in 2.9%, chronic pulmonary disease in 2.0%, malignancy in 2.7%, and smoking in 8.7% of the patients.
Conclusion:
COVID-19 infection seems to be affecting every race, sex, age, irrespective of health status. The risk of symptomatic and severe disease might be higher due to the higher age which is usually accompanied with comorbidities. However, comorbidities do not seem to be the prerequisite for symptomatic and severe COVID-19 infection, except hypertension.
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