Prognostic factors for mortality, intensive care unit and hospital admission due to SARS-CoV-2: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies in Europe

What is it about?

Previous evidence has demonstrated a high risk of severe COVID-19 manifestations in older individuals, especially in combination with pre-existing medical conditions. Population-level data have indicated that COVID-19 older patients with comorbidities have higher mortality, however conclusive age/gender adjusted data using European cohort data is missing.In this systematic review and meta-analysis, only age/gender adjusted European cohort study data were used stratified by clinical setting to control for the primary factor associated with adverse outcomes, which is the patient’s age, hence allowing us to assess the independent effect of each prognostic factor. The results of this meta-analysis indicated that COPD, arrhythmia, Ischemic Heart Disease, heart failure, cancer, renal disease, liver disease, obesity and diabetes were associated with hospital mortality also in age/gender adjusted data, while male gender and respiratory diseases were associated with ICU mortality. Additionally, COPD, dyslipidaemia, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, heart failure and male gender were associated with the composite outcome of death and/or ICU admission. This data could be of great significance for European policymakers in terms of prioritisation of preventive public health measures, such as potential booster vaccinations and use of personal NPIs, which could be further refined by accounting for underlining pre-existing conditions in the current as well as future epidemics.

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