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. 2021 Mar 25:13:25158414211003368.
doi: 10.1177/25158414211003368. eCollection 2021 Jan-Dec.

COVID-19 and conjunctivitis: a meta-analysis

Mashael Al-Namaeh  1
Affiliations

COVID-19 and conjunctivitis: a meta-analysis

Mashael Al-Namaeh. Ther Adv Ophthalmol. .

Abstract

COVID-19 is a disease first identified in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019, causes by a SARS-COV-2 virus infection. By 27 October 2020, 43,921,473 confirmed cases were reported worldwide, with 1,166,389 COVID-19 deaths. Conjunctivitis has been reported in adults and pediatric patients with COVID-19.

Objective: The aim of this meta-analysis is to estimate the odd Ratio (ORs) of conjunctivitis in patients with COVID-19.

Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis have been performed using the PubMed and Google Scholar literature search. The ORs of conjunctivitis in adults and pediatric patients is the outcome of this meta-analysis.

Results: There have been 1041 articles published since the outbreak in December 2019, according to the latest literature. For the meta-analysis, 20 studies with a total of 3383 participants were included. The odds ratio (ORs) of conjunctivitis was 0.01 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.00-0.02). No bias has been reported.

Conclusion: Conjunctivitis is the most common ocular manifestations reported in adults. This comprehensive meta-analysis quantifies the existing evidence linking conjunctivitis with COVID-19 and highlights the high percentage of heterogeneity that is shown in the current studies. Finally, it offers a single review article which includes all the current articles available for COVID-19 and conjunctivitis in adults and children.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; meta-analysis; viral conjunctivitis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flow PRISMA chart presenting the total number of articles and the number of the included studies. Adapted from Moher and colleagues.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Forrest plot depicting pooled analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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