Ann Epidemiol . COVID-19 fatality rates in hospitalized patients: systematic review and meta-analysis

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Ann Epidemiol


. 2021 Mar 1;S1047-2797(21)00033-8.
doi: 10.1016/j.annepidem.2021.02.012. Online ahead of print.
COVID-19 fatality rates in hospitalized patients: systematic review and meta-analysis


Ana Macedo ¹ , Nilza Gon?alves ² , Cl?udia Febra ³



Affiliations

• PMID: 33662494
• DOI: 10.1016/j.annepidem.2021.02.012

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Although general and local public health report deathly cases, case fatality rates are still largely unknown. Thus, we sought to evaluate the mortality of COVID-19.
Methods: We searched PubMed and EMBASE databases for articles evaluating the clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients that included clinical outcomes, between December 2020 and 24 April, 2020. Two authors performed an independent selection using predefined terms of search.
Results: We retrieved 33 studies with a total of 13,398 patients with COVID-19 diagnosis. The mortality rate of the COVID-19 patients was 17.1% (95%CI 12.7; 22.7, I²=96.9%). For general patients admitted to the hospital (excluding critical care-only studies) the mortality rate of the COVID-19 was 11.5% (95%CI 7.7; 16.9, I²=96.7%). Among critical illness studies (n=7) we found a 40.5% mortality (95%CI 31.2; 50.6, I²=91.8%).
Conclusion: High COVID-19 mortality among general admitted patients and critical care cases should guide resources allocations and economic burden calculations during the pandemics.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; coronavirus; fatality; mortality; outbreak.