Association Between Symptoms and Severity of Disease in Hospitalised Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Figures & data

Figure 1 Flow diagram of literature search for including studies in meta-analysis.

Table 1 Basic Characteristics of Included Studies in the Meta-Analysis and Estimating Prevalence of Several Symptoms Related to Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Patients

First Author (Year)	Sample Size (n)	Male (n)	Female (n)	Mean/Median Age (Years)	Severe Patients (n) %	Symptoms
						Fever (%)	Cough (%)	Fatigue (%)	Dyspnoea (%)	Myalgia (%)
Xu et al^Citation26	62	35	27	41	NR	77.42	80.65	51.61	NR	51.61
Guan et al ^Citation23	1099	640	459	47	173 (16%)	43.04	67.79	38.13	NR	NR
Guan WJ et al^Citation22	1590	904	686	49	254 (16%)	84.97	66.16	36.73	NR	NR
Huang et al ^Citation6	41	30	11	49	13 (31%)	97.56	75.61	43.90	53.66	43.90
Guo et al^Citation27	187	91	96	58.50	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR	NR
Zhou et al^Citation28	191	119	72	56	66 (34.55)	94.24	79.06	23.04	NR	15.18
Zhang et al ^Citation25	140	71	69	57	58 (41%)	78.57	64.29	64.29	NR	NR
Liu et al^Citation29	137	61	76	57	NR	81.75	48.18	32.12	18.98	32.12
Wang et al ^Citation8	138	75	63	56	36 (26%)	98.55	59.42	69.57	31.16	34.78
Chen TL et al^Citation30	203	108	95	54	19 (9.36)	89.16	60.10	7.88	1.48	26.60
Liu J et al ^Citation24	61	31	30	40	17 (28%)	98.36	63.93	57.38	4.92	NR
Chen et al.^Citation21	99	67	32	55.5	NR	82.83	81.82	NR	NR	NR
Yang et al^Citation31	52	35	17	59.7	52 (100.00)	98.08	28.85	NR	23.08	3.85
Wu C et al^Citation32	201	128	73	51	53 (26.37)	93.53	81.09	32.34	39.80	32.34
Jie Li et al^Citation33	17	09	8	45.1	NR	70.59	76.47	47.06	NR	23.53
Mo etal^Citation34	155	86	69	54	55 (35.48)	81.29	62.58	38.71	1.29	NR
Rong-Hui et al^Citation35	179	97	82	57.6	NR	98.88	81.56	39.66	49.72	18.99
Chen et al^Citation36	274	171	103	62	113 (41.24)	90.88	67.52	50.00	NR	21.90
Deng et al^Citation37	225	73	152	69	NR	42.22	20.89	13.33	34.22	13.33
Wang et al^Citation38	339	166	173	69	65 (19.17)	91.74	52.80	39.82	40.71	4.72
Total	5390	2997	2393	-	974	-	-	-	-	-
		Overall Prevalence (95% CI)				88.47 (80.74, 93.35)	64.65 (58.42, 70.43)	38.45 (32.52, 44.74)	23.59 (16.48, 32.58)	22.46 (16.36, 30.02)
		I^2 (%)				98	94	94	92	91
		p for heterogeneity				p < 0.01	p < 0.01	p < 0.01	p < 0.01	P < 0.01

Note: Meta-analysis for the prevalence was calculated from binary random-effects model analysis (see, Figure 1 for details).

Figure 2 Meta-Analysis of symptoms of COVID-19. A–E represent the prevalence of fever, cough, fatigue, dyspnoea and myalgia, respectively.

Figure 3 Meta-Analysis representing severity of symptoms in COVID-19 patients. A–E represent Mantel-Haenszel (MH) odds ratio of fever, cough, fatigue, dyspnoea and myalgia, respectively.

Notes: In all figures, “Experimental Events” represents the no. of severe patients having corresponding symptom; “Control Events” represents all the severe patients reporting in the particular study.

Figure 4 Funnel plot with Egger’s test for assessing publication bias. (A) Fever; (B) cough; (C) fatigue; (D) dyspnoea; (E) myalgia.

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