Informing the public health response to COVID-19 : a systematic review of risk factors for disease, severity, and mortality
Funding: HRS and MF are supported by the Medical Research Council [MR/R008345/1]. CJ's salary came through MRC core funding MC_UU_12023/26. SJS is funded by the Wellcome Trust [WT 209560/Z/17/Z]. CRS has received funding from the Medical Research Council [MR/R008345/1], the National Institute for Health Research [11/46/23] and the New Zealand Health Research Council [20/1018] and Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment. EV is funded by the Medical Research Council [MR/R008345/1] through the EAVE II grant and supported by the Scottish Government. We also acknowledge the support of HDR UK. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Health Technology Assessment programme, NIHR, NHS, or the UK Department of Health. ; Background Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has challenged public health agencies globally. In order to effectively target government responses, it is critical to identify the individuals most at risk of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), developing severe clinical signs, and mortality. We undertook a systematic review of the literature to present the current status of scientific knowledge in these areas and describe the need for unified global approaches, moving forwards, as well as lessons learnt for future pandemics. Methods Medline, Embase and Global Health were searched to the end of April 2020, as well as the Web of Science. Search terms were specific to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19. Comparative studies of risk factors from any setting, population group and in any language were included. Titles, abstracts and full texts were screened by two reviewers and extracted in duplicate into a standardised form. Data were extracted on risk factors for COVID-19 disease, severe disease, or death and were narratively and descriptively synthesised. Results One thousand two hundred and thirty-eight papers were identified post-deduplication. Thirty-three met our inclusion criteria, of which 26 were from ...