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Review
. 2021 Mar;38(Supplement):S31-S40.
doi: 10.4103/lungindia.lungindia_497_20.

Prevalence and mortality of lung comorbidities among patients with COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Mohammed G Alkhathami  1 , Shailesh M Advani  2 , Adil A Abalkhail  3 , Fahad M Alkhathami  4 , Mohammed K Alshehri  5 , Ebtisam E Albeashy  6 , Jihad A Alsalamah  7
Affiliations
Review

Prevalence and mortality of lung comorbidities among patients with COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Mohammed G Alkhathami et al. Lung India. 2021 Mar.

Abstract

COVID-19 infections are seen across all age groups, but they have shown to have a predisposition for the elderly and those with underlying comorbidities. Patients with severe COVID-19 infections and comorbidities are more prone to respiratory distress syndrome, mechanical ventilator use, and ultimately succumb to these complications. Little evidence exists of the prevalence of underlying lung comorbidities among COVID-19 patients and associated mortality. We performed a systematic review of the literature including PubMed (Medline), Embase (Ovid), Google Scholar, and Cochrane Library. The last date for our search was April 29, 2020. We included all original research articles on COVID-19 and calculated prevalence of chronic lung disease patients among COVID-19 patients using random effects model. Further, we assessed for mortality rates among COVID-19 patients associated with these lung comorbidities. The authors identified 29 articles that reported prevalence of chronic lung conditions among COVID-19 patients. Among those, 26 were from China and 3 from the United States. The pooled prevalence of lung comorbidities including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung cancer was 3% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0%-14%), 2.2% (95% CI = 0.02%-0.03%), and 2.1% (95% CI = 0.00%-0.21%), respectively. Mortality rates associated with these comorbidities was 30% (41/137) for COPD and 19% (7/37) for lung cancer respectively. No mortality rates were reported for patients with asthma. This study offers latest evidence of prevalence of chronic lung conditions among patients with COVID-19. Asthma, followed by COPD and lung cancer, was the most common lung comorbidity associated with COVID-19, while the higher mortality rate was found in COPD. Future studies are needed to assess other lung comorbidities and associated mortality among patients diagnosed with COVID-19.

Keywords: Asthma; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; coronavirus; lung cancer; lung comorbidities; mortality; severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

None

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses flowchart of the systematic literature review and article identification
Figure 2
Figure 2
Prevalence of asthma among patients hospitalized with COVID-19
Figure 3
Figure 3
Prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among patients hospitalized with COVID-19
Figure 4
Figure 4
Prevalence of lung cancer among patients hospitalized with COVID-19
Figure 5
Figure 5
Funnel plot for meta-analysis of the prevalence of underlying diseases in COVID-19 infected cases
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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