Current smokers and persons with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have more risk of severe complications and higher mortality with COVID-19 infection, based on study published on May 11, 2020 within the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jaber Alqahtani of University College London, UK, and his colleagues.
COPD could be a common, persistent dysfunction of the lung affiliated with a limitation in airflow. An estimated 251 million people globally are impacted due to COPD. Given the results of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus on respiratory function, the authors of current study sought to know the prevalence and therefore the effects of COPD in COVID-19 patients.
In the new study, researchers systematically searched databases of scientific literature to seek out existing publications on the epidemiological, clinical characteristics and features of COVID-19 and therefore the generality of COPD in patients diagnosed with COVID-19. 123 potentially relevant papers were narrowed to fifteen that met all quality and inclusion guidelines. The included studies had a number of 2473 confirmed patients with COVID-19. 58 (2.3%) of these patients also had COPD while 221 (9%) were smokers.
Critically ill COVID-19 patients with COPD had a 63% risk of severe disease and a 60% risk of mortality while critically ill patients without COPD had only a 33.4% risk of severe disease (RR 1.88, 95% CI 1.4-2.4) and 55% risk of mortality (RR 1.1, 95% CI 0.6-1.8).
Additionally, current smokers were 1.45 times more likely to have severe complications compared to former and never smokers (95% CI 1.03-2.04). The study failed to examine if there was an association between the frequency of COPD exacerbations, or severity of COPD, with COVID-19 outcomes or complications. The results are limited by the very fact that few studies were available to review, also because the diverse locations, settings, and designs of the included studies.
