Prevalence and risk of COVID-19 in patients with rheumatic diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives COVID-19 pandemic has already had a tremendous impact on the process of human society; the survival of mankind and the healthy living environment deterioration with the influence will last for many years. This meta-analysis aims to assess the risk of COVID-19 in patients with rheumatic diseases. Methods PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM) were systematically searched with no language restriction up to July 5, 2021. The pooled rates were synthesized by fixed effect model or random effect model depending on heterogeneity. Results A total of 83 articles were included in this meta-analysis. The incidence of COVID-19 in patient with rheumatic diseases was 0.0190 (95% CI: 0.0136-0.0252), and the hospitalization rate, intensive care unit admission rate, mechanical ventilation rate, and case fatality rate of patients with rheumatic diseases infected with COVID-19 were 0.4396 (95% CI: 0.3899-0.4898), 0.0635 (95% CI: 0.0453-0.0836), 0.0461 (95% CI: 0.0330-0.0609), and 0.0346 (95% CI: 0.0218-0.0493), respectively. Conclusions Our research shows that patients with rheumatic diseases have great risk of COVID-19. Differences in COVID-19 incidence, hospitalization rates, and mortality rates in regions were statistically significant. We still need to pay attention to the risk of COVID-19 in patients with rheumatic diseases.