An updated meta‐analysis on the association between tuberculosis and COVID‐19 severity and mortality

Wang, Yadong; Feng, Ruo; Xu, Jie; Hou, Hongjie; Feng, Huifen; Yang, Haiyan

OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate the association between tuberculosis and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity and mortality based on updated data. METHODS Electronic databases were systematically searched for eligible literatures. The pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) were estimated by a random-effects model. Begg's test, Egger's test and sensitivity analysis were also performed. RESULTS Thirty-six full-text articles with 60,103 COVID-19 patients were included in this study. Overall, we found that COVID-19 patients with tuberculosis tended to have an increased risk for the disease severity compared to those without tuberculosis (OR = 1.56, 95% CI: 1.13 to 2.16). When we restricted the outcomes to mortality, the significant association was still announced (OR = 1.94, 95% CI: 1.28 to 2.93). Sensitivity analysis demonstrated that our results were robust and stable. There was no potential publication bias detected in Begg's test or Egger's test. CONCLUSIONS Our updated meta-analysis demonstrated that tuberculosis was significantly associated with an increased risk for severity and mortality among COVID-19 patients. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.