RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Comorbidities and severity of coronavirus disease 2019 patients
JF Saudi Medical Journal
JO Saudi Med J
FD Prince Sultan Military Medical City
SP 1165
OP 1174
DO 10.15537/smj.2020.11.25454
VO 41
IS 11
A1 Nashwa M. Radwan
A1 Nagla E. Mahmoud
A1 Amal H. Alfaifi
A1 Khaled I. Alabdulkareem
YR 2020
UL http://smj.org.sa/content/41/11/1165.abstract
AB Objectives: To determine the association between comorbidities and the severity of the disease among COVID-19 patients.Methods: We searched the Cochrane, Medline, Trip, and EMBASE databases from 2019. The review included all available studies of COVID-19 patients published in the English language and studied the clinical characteristics, comorbidities, and disease outcomes from the beginning of the pandemic. Two authors extracted studies characteristics and the risk of bias. Odds ratio (OR) was used to analyze the data with 95% confidence interval (CI).Results: The review included 1,885 COVID-19 patients from 7 observational studies with some degree of bias risk and substantial heterogeneity. A significant association was recorded between COVID-19 severity and the following variables: male (OR= 1.60, 95%CI= 1.05 - 2.43); current smoker (OR=2.06, 95%CI= 1.08 - 3.94); and the presence of comorbidities including hypertension (OR=2.05, 95%CI= 1.56 - 2.70), diabetes (OR=2.46, 95%CI= 1.53 - 3.96), coronary heart disease (OR=4.10, 95%CI= 2.36 - 7.12), chronic kidney disease (OR=4.06, 95%CI= 1.45 - 11.35), and cancer (OR=2.28, 95%CI= 1.08 - 4.81).Conclusions: Comorbidities among COVID-19 patients may contribute to increasing their susceptibility to severe illness. The identification of these potential risk factors could help reduce mortality by identifying patients with poor prognosis at an early stage.