ReviewHeliyon2020
Impact of age, sex, comorbidities and clinical symptoms on the severity of COVID-19 cases: A meta-analysis with 55 studies and 10014 cases.
Review in Heliyon, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 121 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
121 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 241 citations in OpenAlex.
- Global prevalence and effect of comorbidities and smoking status on severity and mortality of COVID-19 in association with age and gender: a systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression.Scientific reports · 2023Pooled it
- Association of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and D-dimer concentration on the severity of COVID-19 cases with or without diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Expert review of endocrinology & metabolism · 2022Pooled it
- Risk factors for mortality in hemodialysis patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Renal failure · 2021Pooled it
- Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio is independently associated with COVID-19 severity: An updated meta-analysis based on adjusted effect estimates.International journal of laboratory hematology · 2021Pooled it
- Pre-existing health conditions and severe COVID-19 outcomes: an umbrella review approach and meta-analysis of global evidence.BMC medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Cardiovascular risk factors, cardiovascular disease, and COVID-19: an umbrella review of systematic reviews.European heart journal. Quality of care & clinical outcomes · 2021Pooled it
- Meta-Analysis of Atrial Fibrillation in Patients With COVID-19.The American journal of cardiology · 2021Pooled it
- HLA Class I and II Variants as Potential Determinants of Clinical Severity and Mortality in Patients with COVID-19: A Prospective Study from Saudi Arabia.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Genetic, Sociodemographic and Clinical Determinants of COVID-19 Severity in the Republic of Srpska: Exploring Potential Links with Neanderthal-Derived Variants.Biomedicines · 2026Article
- Predictors of Severe Outcomes in COVID-19: Evidence from Real-World Multicenter Retrospective Study (2020-2024).Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Immunoregulatory effect of metformin in monocytes exposed to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein subunit 1.Immunometabolism (Cobham, Surrey) · 2026Article
- Age-driven shifts in T and NK cell responses amplify inflammation and coagulopathy during viral infection in mice and humans.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Underlying conditions associated with adverse COVID-19 treatment outcomes in selected Kenyan hospitals, October 2020 to December 2021.Global health action · 2025Article
- COVID-19 Waves and Cardiac Health: An Investigative Analysis of Creatine Phosphokinase Levels and Troponin Status Using Machine Learning.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Immunoregulatory effect of metformin in monocytes exposed to SARS-CoV-2 spike protein subunit 1.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Efficient and scalable construction of clinical variable networks for complex diseases with RAMEN.Cell reports methods · 2025Article
- The impact of COVID-19: consequences of a 3-Year struggle in Iran.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Article
- Assessing the impact of comorbidities on disease severity in COVID-19 patients requires consideration of age.Medicine · 2025Observational
- Impact of vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 on mortality risk, ICU admission rate, and hospitalization length in hospitalized COVID-19 patients: a cross-sectional study.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
61 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeSevere acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) cases are overgrowing globally and now become a pandemic. A meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the impact of age, sex, comorbidities, and clinical characteristics on the severity of COVID-19 to help diagnose and evaluate the current outbreak in clinical decision-making.
methodsPubMed, ScienceDirect, and BMC were searched to collect data about demographic, clinical characteristics, and comorbidities of COVID-19 patients. Meta-analysis was conducted with Review Manager 5.3. Publication bias was assessed using Egger's test and Begg-Mazumdar's rank correlation.
resultsFifty-five studies were included in this meta-analysis, including 10014 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Male cases and cases with an age of ≥50 years (OR = 2.41, p < 0.00001; RR = 3.36, p = 0.0002, respectively) were severely affected by SARS-CoV-2. Patients having age≥65 years are not associated (p = 0.110) with the severity of COVID-19. Presence of at least one comorbidity or hypertension, diabetes, cerebrovascular disease, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory disease, malignancy, chronic kidney disease and chronic liver diseases individually increased the severity of COVID-19 cases significantly (OR = 3.13, p < 0.00001; OR = 2.35, p < 0.00001; OR = 2.42, p < 0.00001; OR = 3.78, p < 0.00001; OR = 3.33, p < 0.00001; OR = 2.58, p < 0.00001; OR = 2.32, p < 0.00001; OR = 2.27, p = 0.0007; OR = 1.70, p = 0.003, respectively). Clinical manifestation such as fever, cough, fatigue, anorexia, dyspnea, chest tightness, hemoptysis, diarrhea and abdominal pain (OR = 1.68, p = 0.0001; OR = 1.41, p = 0.004; OR = 1.26, p = 0.03; OR = 2.38, p < 0.0001; OR = 4.30, p < 0.00001; OR = 2.11, p = 0.002; OR = 4.93, p < 0.0001; OR = 1.35, p = 0.03; OR = 2.38, p = 0.008, respectively) were significantly associated with the severity of cases. No association of severity was found with myalgia, pharyngalgia, nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness and sore throat (p > 0.05). No publication bias was found in case of age (≥50 years, age≥65 years), comorbidities and clinical manifestations.
conclusionsMales patients and elderly or older patients (age ≥50 years) are at higher risk of developing severity, whereas comorbidities and clinical manifestations could significantly affect the prognosis and severity of COVID-19.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.