Frequency of Underlying Diseases, Symptoms and Mortality Rate of COVID-19: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is known to be affected by underlying diseases of the respiratory system. In this meta-analysis, the keywords of COVID-19, underlying diseases, symptoms, and mortality were searched in national and international databases to obtain the related studies. The inclusion criteria were as follows: interventional, clinical, descriptive and cross-sectional, and studies focusing on COVID-19. This study was conducted based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and MetaAnalyses protocol. Eighteen studies were selected to be finally analyzed. The mean percentage of mortality was 14% (I-2 = 98.9, P< 0.001). The most common symptoms were fever (91%, I-2 = 88.5, P< 0.001) and cough (71%, I-2= 84.5, P< 0.001), and the most frequent underlying diseases were hypertension (41%, I-2 = 98.9, P<0.001), diabetes mellitus (18%, I-2 = 88.7, P< 0.001) and cardiovascular disease (11%, I-2 = 87.7, P< 0.001). Findings of present study suggest that individuals with underlying diseases have a higher rate of mortality following COVID-19 infection. Copyright (C) 2021 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.