Impact of asthma on COVID-19 mortality in the United States: Evidence based on a meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of asthma on the risk for mortality among coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in the United States by a quantitative meta-analysis. METHODS: A random-effects model was used to estimate the pooled odds ratio (OR) with corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI). I(2) statistic, sensitivity analysis, Begg’s test, meta-regression and subgroup analyses were also performed. RESULTS: The data based on 56 studies with 426,261 COVID-19 patients showed that there was a statistically significant association between pre-existing asthma and the reduced risk for COVID-19 mortality in the United States (OR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.74–0.91). Subgroup analyses by age, male proportion, sample size, study design and setting demonstrated that pre-existing asthma was associated with a significantly reduced risk for COVID-19 mortality among studies with age ≥ 60 years old (OR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.72–0.87), male proportion ≥ 55% (OR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.72–0.87), male proportion ＜ 55% (OR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.69–0.95), sample sizes ≥ 700 cases (OR: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.71–0.91), retrospective study/case series (OR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.75–0.89), prospective study (OR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.70–0.98) and hospitalized patients (OR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.74–0.91). Meta-regression did reveal none of factors mentioned above were possible reasons of heterogeneity. Sensitivity analysis indicated the robustness of our findings. No publication bias was detected in Begg’s test (P = 0.4538). CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrated pre-existing asthma was significantly associated with a reduced risk for COVID-19 mortality in the United States.