https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3381-2641
![Sample our Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing & Allied Health journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5944/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Medicine-Dentistry-Nursing-Allied-Health.jpg"})
Abstract
Objective
There are varying reports of the prevalence and effect of comorbid asthma in coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients. We sought to conduct a meta-analysis comparing asthmatic and non-asthmatic patients to determine the clinical significance of preexisting asthma in COVID-19 patients.
Data Sources
Online databases PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and Scopus, were searched up to July 15, 2020, for papers comparing asthma versus non-asthma COVID-19 patients.
Study Selection
According to prespecified inclusion criteria, this analysis included eleven retrospective studies with 107,983 COVID-19 patients. Subgroup analysis was performed based on age groups.
Results
The mean age of the patients was 59.9 years (95%CI = 51.9–67.9). Across studies, the prevalence of asthma was 11.2% (95%CI: 9.1%–13.3%) among COVID-19 patients who attended the hospitals. Asthma patients were more likely to be younger (SMD = −0.36, 95%CI = −0.61 to −0.10, p = 0.005), and obese (OR = 1.98, 95%CI = 1.54–2.55, p < 0.001), there was no differential risk of hospitalization rate, ICU admission, or development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) between asthmatic and non-asthmatic cohorts. However, asthmatic patients had increased risk of endotracheal intubation (RR = 1.27, 95%CI = 1.02–1.58, p = 0.030) especially patients aged <50 years (RR = 6.68, 95%CI = 1.76–11.13, p = 0.009). Despite this result, asthmatic patients had better recovery with a higher liability of being discharged and were less likely to die (RR = 0.80, 95%CI = 0.65–0.97, p = 0.026).
Conclusion
To our knowledge, our meta-analysis is the largest to shed light on preexisting asthma as a predictor of intubation in COVID-19, especially in young and obese patients. Identifying high-risk groups is crucial for designing more effective intervention plans and optimization of efficient resource allocation.
Data availability statement
All data generated from this analysis were supplied in the text and the tables.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflict of interest.