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. 2021 Apr;15(4):561-568.
doi: 10.1080/17476348.2021.1850275. Epub 2020 Dec 3.

Reduced risk of COVID-19 hospitalization in asthmatic and COPD patients: a benefit of inhaled corticosteroids?

Paola Rogliani  1 , Davide Lauro  2 , Nicola Di Daniele  2 , Alfredo Chetta  3 , Luigino Calzetta  3
Affiliations

Reduced risk of COVID-19 hospitalization in asthmatic and COPD patients: a benefit of inhaled corticosteroids?

Paola Rogliani et al. Expert Rev Respir Med. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Background: The comorbidities and clinical signs of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients have been reported mainly as descriptive statistics, rather than quantitative analysis even in very large investigations. The aim of this study was to identify specific patients' characteristics that may modulate COVID-19 hospitalization risk.Research design and methods: A pooled analysis was performed on high-quality epidemiological studies to quantify the prevalence (%) of comorbidities and clinical signs in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Pooled data were used to calculate the relative risk (RR) of specific comorbidities by matching the frequency of comorbidities in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with those of general population.Results: The most frequent comorbidities were hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular and/or cerebrovascular diseases. The RR of COVID-19 hospitalization was significantly (P < 0.05) reduced in patients with asthma (0.86, 0.77-0.97) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (0.46, 0.40-0.52). The most frequent clinical signs were fever and cough.Conclusion: The clinical signs of hospitalized COVID-19 patients are similar to those of other infective diseases. Patients with asthma or COPD were at lower hospitalization risk. This paradoxical evidence could be related with the protective effect of inhaled corticosteroids that are administered worldwide to most asthmatic and COPD patients.

Keywords: Asthma; copd; covid-19; hospitalization; pooled analysis; sars-CoV-2.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
PRISMA-P flow diagram for the identification of epidemiological studies included in the pooled analysis concerning the risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19. COVID-19: coronavirus disease 2019; PRISMA: preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
RR of hospitalization due to COVID-19 in patients with different comorbidities. COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; COVID-19: coronavirus disease 2019; RR: relative risk
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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