Mortality-related risk factors of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 42 studies and 423,117 patients

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Mortality rates of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) continue to rise across the world. The impact of several risk factors on coronavirus mortality has been previously reported in several meta-analyses limited by small sample sizes. In this systematic review, we aimed to summarize available findings on the association between comorbidities, complications, smoking status, obesity, gender, age and D-dimer, and risk of mortality from COVID-19 using a large dataset from a number of studies. METHOD: Electronic databases including Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, Web of Sciences (WOS), EMBASE, Medline/PubMed, COVID-19 Research Database, and Scopus, were systematically searched till 31 August 2020. We included all human studies regardless of language, publication date or region. Fo