Prevalence of comorbidity in Chinese patients with COVID-19: systematic review and meta-analysis of risk factors

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease characterized by cough, fever, and fatigue and 20% of cases will develop into severe conditions resulting from acute lung injury with the manifestation of the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) that accounts for more than 50% of mortality. Currently, it has been reported that some comorbidities are linked with an increased rate of severity and mortality among COVID-19 patients. To assess the role of comorbidity in COVID-19 progression, we performed a systematic review with a meta-analysis on the relationship of COVID-19 severity with 8 different underlying diseases. METHODS: PubMed, Web of Science, and CNKI were searched for articles investigating the prevalence of comorbidities in severe and non-severe COVID-19 patients. A total of 41 studies comprising 12,526 patients were included. RESULTS: Prevalence of some commodities was lower than that in general population such as hypertension (19% vs 23.2%), diabetes (9% vs 10.9%), chronic kidney disease (CKD) (2% vs 9.5%), chronic liver diseases (CLD) (3% vs 24.8%) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (3% vs 8.6%), while some others including cancer (1% vs 0.6%), cardiovascular disease (6% vs 1.8%) and cerebrovascular disease (2% vs 0.9%) exhibited greater percentage in COVID-19. Cerebrovascular disease (OR = 3.70, 95%CI 2.51–5.45) was found to be the strongest risk factor in disease exacerbation, followed by CKD (OR = 3.60, 95%CI 2.18–5.94), COPD (OR = 3.14, 95% CI 2.35–4.19), cardiovascular disease (OR = 2.76, 95% CI 2.18–3.49), malignancy (OR = 2.63, 95% CI 1.75–3.95), diabetes (OR = 2.49, 95% CI 2.10–2.96) and hypertension (OR = 2.13, 95% CI 1.81–2.51). We found no correlation between CLD and increased disease severity (OR = 1.32, 95% CI 0.96–1.82). CONCLUSION: The impact of all eight underlying diseases on COVID-19 deterioration seemed to be higher in patients outside Hubei. Based on different comorbidities, COVID-19 patients tend to be at risk of developing poor outcomes to a varying degree. Thus, tailored infection prevention and monitoring and treatment strategies targeting these high-risk subgroups might improve prognosis during the COVID-19 pandemic. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12879-021-05915-0.