Prevalence of comorbidities and symptoms stratified by severity of illness amongst adult patients with COVID-19: a systematic review

Abstract

Introduction We performed a systematic review of comorbidities and symptoms of adult patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to evaluate comorbidities, symptoms, and severity. Material and methods We searched databases and extracted comorbidities and symptoms from the included studies. We stratified the similar signs and symptoms in groups and on the basis of severity and compared them with stratified analysis. Individual case reports and case series with < 5 patients were excluded. Results A total of 163 studies with 43,187 patients were included. Mean age was 54.6 years. There were significantly fewer women in the study (43.9% vs. 56.1%, p < 0.0001). Prevalent cardiovascular comorbidities were hypertension (31.9%), obesity (27.9%), hyperlipidemia (26.4%), smoking (18.9%), diabetes mellitus (17.2%), atherosclerotic disease (9.2%) and arrhythmia (5.0%). The most frequently reported constitutional symptoms of COVID-19 were fever (73.9%), fatigue (33.4%), malaise (29.9%), myalgia and/or arthralgia (19.2%), generalized weakness (19.0%), and chills (11.3%). For the cardiovascular system, chest pain and/or tightness were most often reported (19.6%), followed by palpitations (5.2%). Hypertension and diabetes were common in severe disease. Obesity and congestive heart failure were not observed in any non-severe cases. Severe cases compared to non-severe cases more frequently had fever (87.8% vs. 58.5%, <i>p</i> < 0.001), shortness of breath (47.4% vs. 20.6%, <i>p</i> < 0.001), cough (66.8% vs. 62.9%, <i>p</i> < 0.001), sputum production (35.4% vs. 26.5%, <i>p</i> < 0.001) and rhinorrhea (32.2% vs. 7.3%, <i>p</i> < 0.001). Conclusions Hypertension, diabetes, and atherosclerotic diseases are common comorbidities across the world, with obesity as the second most common in the US and more common in men.

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