Risk factors for mortality in patients with chikungunya: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Chikungunya fever is a debilitating arthritic disease that can lead to atypical severe complications and sometimes be fatal. The risk factors for fatal outcomes of chikungunya fever have not been thoroughly studied. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to identify mortality risk factors in patients with chikungunya. These findings will aid clinicians in targeting high-risk groups with severe chikungunya for timely interventions, ultimately improving patient outcomes.

The objective of this study is to identify mortality risk factors in patients with chikungunya.

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis by searching the MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, BVS, BDTD and OpenGrey databases to identify eligible observational studies on patients with chikungunya. These studies analysed mortality risk factors, providing adjusted risk measures along with their corresponding confidence intervals (CIs). We estimated the pooled weighted mean difference and 95% CIs using a random-effects model, and the methodological quality was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale.

Our search yielded a total of 334 records. After removing duplicates, we screened 275 records, reviewed 31 full articles and included seven studies in the systematic review and four in the meta-analysis, with a total of 220,215 patients and 908 fatal cases. Diabetes Mellitus (OR = 2.86, 95% CI 1.75-4.69), hypertension (OR = 3.10, 95% CI 2.02-4.77), age ≥ 60 years (OR = 19.49, 95% CI 1.98-191.88), chronic kidney disease (OR = 5.81, 95% CI 1.30-25.99), male sex (OR = 2.07, 95% CI 1.71-2.51) and vomiting (OR = 2.18, 95% CI 1.75-2.73) are significantly and positively associated with mortality in chikungunya.

Elderly men with chronic diseases have a higher risk of death from chikungunya; therefore, they deserve more careful evaluation.