Risk Factors of the Severity of COVID-19: a Meta-Analysis

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND Although the infection rate of COVID-19 is very high, all the patients getting infected don’t always die or go through brutal states. This indicates there may be some factors that possibly boost the severity of COVID-19. OBJECTIVE We intend to identify some probable risk factors that are responsible for the severity of COVID-19 using a meta-analysis. METHODS The literature exploration lasted up to 18 April 2020 and through PubMed, Google Scholar, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library we have identified 10 pertinent publications. To paraphrase the outcomes of autonomous researches, we have performed a random-effect meta-analysis. RESULTS A total of 2272 patients’ information was extracted from the selected literature. We have found sex (male) (Risk ratio [RR] =1.29 [1.07; 1.54]), hypertension (RR=1.79 [1.57; 2.04]), diabetes (RR=1.57 [1.25; 1.98]), fatigue or myalgia (RR=1.17 [1.02; 1.35]), and smoking history (RR=1.71 [1.25; 2.35]) are potential risk factors for the severity of COVID-19. We found fever (RR=1.21 [0.66; 2.22]), cough (1.13 [0.98; 1.30]), and diarrhea (RR=1.14 [0.93; 1.40]) as insignificant risk factors for COVID-19 severity. CONCLUSION The findings of this research may be beneficial to identify patients with higher risks to provide additional medical attention from the very beginning of the treatment.