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. 2020 Apr;25(15):2000125.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.15.2000125.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): a scoping review

Meng Lv  1   2   3 , Xufei Luo  1   2   3 , Janne Estill  4   5 , Yunlan Liu  1 , Mengjuan Ren  1 , Jianjian Wang  1   3 , Qi Wang  6 , Siya Zhao  1   3 , Xiaohui Wang  1 , Shu Yang  7 , Xixi Feng  8 , Weiguo Li  9   10 , Enmei Liu  9   10 , Xianzhuo Zhang  11 , Ling Wang  1 , Qi Zhou  11 , Wenbo Meng  12 , Xiaolong Qi  12 , Yangqin Xun  3 , Xuan Yu  3 , Yaolong Chen  13   14   15   16   3 ; COVID-19 evidence and recommendations working group  17
Affiliations

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): a scoping review

Meng Lv et al. Euro Surveill. 2020 Apr.

Abstract

BackgroundIn December 2019, a pneumonia caused by a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan, China and has rapidly spread around the world since then.AimThis study aims to understand the research gaps related to COVID-19 and propose recommendations for future research.MethodsWe undertook a scoping review of COVID-19, comprehensively searching databases and other sources to identify literature on COVID-19 between 1 December 2019 and 6 February 2020. We analysed the sources, publication date, type and topic of the retrieved articles/studies.ResultsWe included 249 articles in this scoping review. More than half (59.0%) were conducted in China. Guidance/guidelines and consensuses statements (n = 56; 22.5%) were the most common. Most (n = 192; 77.1%) articles were published in peer-reviewed journals, 35 (14.1%) on preprint servers and 22 (8.8%) posted online. Ten genetic studies (4.0%) focused on the origin of SARS-CoV-2 while the topics of molecular studies varied. Nine of 22 epidemiological studies focused on estimating the basic reproduction number of COVID-19 infection (R0). Of all identified guidance/guidelines (n = 35), only ten fulfilled the strict principles of evidence-based practice. The number of articles published per day increased rapidly until the end of January.ConclusionThe number of articles on COVID-19 steadily increased before 6 February 2020. However, they lack diversity and are almost non-existent in some study fields, such as clinical research. The findings suggest that evidence for the development of clinical practice guidelines and public health policies will be improved when more results from clinical research becomes available.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; communicable diseases; coronavirus infections; global health emergency; pandemics; scoping review.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of selection process for the scoping review of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) articles/studies and results, 1 December 2019–6 February 2020
Figure 2
Figure 2
Cumulative number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-related articles/studies included in the scoping review, 10 January–6 February 2020 (n = 249)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-related articles/studies published per day according to type, 10 January–6 February 2020 (n = 249)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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