Prevalence of co‐morbidities and their association with mortality in patients with COVID‐19: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

AIM: To estimate the prevalence of both cardiometabolic and other co‐morbidities in patients with COVID‐19, and to estimate the increased risk of severity of disease and mortality in people with co‐morbidities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Medline, Scopus and the World Health Organization website were searched for global research on COVID‐19 conducted from January 2019 up to 23 April 2020. Study inclusion was restricted to English language publications, original articles that reported the prevalence of co‐morbidities in individuals with COVID‐19, and case series including more than 10 patients. Eighteen studies were selected for inclusion. Data were analysed using random effects meta‐analysis models. RESULTS: Eighteen studies with a total of 14 558 individuals were identified. The pooled prevalence for co‐morbidities in patients with COVID‐19 disease was 22.9% (95% CI: 15.8 to 29.9) for hypertension, 11.5% (9.7 to 13.4) for diabetes, and 9.7% (6.8 to 12.6) for cardiovascular disease (CVD). For chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic kidney disease (CKD), cerebrovascular disease and cancer, the pooled prevalences were all less than 4%. With the exception of cerebrovascular disease, all the other co‐morbidities presented a significantly increased risk for having severe COVID‐19. In addition, the risk of mortality was significantly increased in individuals with CVD, COPD, CKD, cerebrovascular disease and cancer. CONCLUSIONS: In individuals with COVID‐19, the presence of co‐morbidities (both cardiometabolic and other) is associated with a higher risk of severe COVID‐19 and mortality. These findings have important implications for public health with regard to risk stratification and future planning.