SARS-Coronavirus Disease-19 and Comorbidities: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction: Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic is evolving rapidly worldwide. It has led to a worldwide research to identify the people who are at more risk for developing the infection, increasing severity and mortality. Aim: The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the risk of some of the common and major comorbidities on the outcome of the disease. Materials and Methods: A literature search was conducted using EMBASE, PUBMED, Web of science, SCOPUS and Cochrane database. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) used were “COVID-19” or “SARS CoV 2” or “Coronavirus disease 19” and “Comorbidities” or “Risk factors”. Individual risk factors were also used as keywords such as “Diabetes”, Hypertension”, “Obesity”, “Chronic kidney disease”, “Elderly”, “Cardiovascular disease”, “Lung disorders” and “Malignancy”. Two researchers conducted the search independently. Results: After extensive search, 57 articles were shortlisted for complete review. It was found that patients with comorbidities had more severe disease than those without comorbidities. Patients with more number of comorbidities had more severe disease than patients with single comorbidity. Initial reports suggested that elderly were at more risk than the younger population. The most common comorbidity was hypertension followed by diabetes and obesity. Conclusion: A meticulous triage of patients should be carried out after acquiring proper medical history because this will help to identify patients who are at an increased risk of poor outcome of the infection. Also, they should be given more aggressive treatment upon diagnosis of infection.

Keywords

• diabetes
• hypertension
• kidney disease
• obesity
• pre-existing condition
• risk factors