Impact of Asthma on COVID-19 Mortality in the United States: Evidence Based on a Meta-analysis

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of asthma on the risk for mortality among coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in the United States by a quantitative meta-analysis.

Methods: A random-effects model was used to estimate the pooled odds ratio (OR) with corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI). I statistic, sensitivity analysis, Begg's test, meta-regression and subgroup analyses were also performed.

Results: The data based on 56 studies with 426,261 COVID-19 patients showed that there was a statistically significant association between pre-existing asthma and the reduced risk for COVID-19 mortality in the United States (OR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.74-0.91). Subgroup analyses by age, male proportion, sample size, study design and setting demonstrated that pre-existing asthma was associated with a significantly reduced risk for COVID-19 mortality among studies with age ≥ 60 years old (OR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.72-0.87), male proportion ≥ 55% (OR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.72-0.87), male proportion ＜ 55% (OR: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.69-0.95), sample sizes ≥ 700 cases (OR: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.71-0.91), retrospective study/case series (OR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.75-0.89), prospective study (OR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.70-0.98) and hospitalized patients (OR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.74-0.91). Meta-regression did reveal none of factors mentioned above were possible reasons of heterogeneity. Sensitivity analysis indicated the robustness of our findings. No publication bias was detected in Begg's test (P = 0.4538).

Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated pre-existing asthma was significantly associated with a reduced risk for COVID-19 mortality in the United States.