COVID‐19 patients clinical characteristics, discharge rate, and fatality rate of meta‐analysis

The aim of this study was to analyze the clinical data, discharge rate, and fatality rate of COVID‐19 patients for clinical help. The clinical data of COVID‐19 patients from December 2019 to February 2020 were retrieved from four databases. We statistically analyzed the clinical symptoms and laboratory results of COVID‐19 patients and explained the discharge rate and fatality rate with a single‐arm meta‐analysis. The available data of 1994 patients in 10 literatures were included in our study. The main clinical symptoms of COVID‐19 patients were fever (88.5%), cough (68.6%), myalgia or fatigue (35.8%), expectoration (28.2%), and dyspnea (21.9%). Minor symptoms include headache or dizziness (12.1%), diarrhea (4.8%), nausea and vomiting (3.9%). The results of the laboratory showed that the lymphocytopenia (64.5%), increase of C‐reactive protein (44.3%), increase of lactic dehydrogenase (28.3%), and leukocytopenia (29.4%) were more common. The results of single‐arm meta‐analysis showed that the male took a larger percentage in the gender distribution of COVID‐19 patients 60% (95% CI [0.54, 0.65]), the discharge rate of COVID‐19 patients was 52% (95% CI [0.34,0.70]), and the fatality rate was 5% (95% CI [0.01,0.11]).
Research Highlights Our study explored the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of COVID‐19 patients, and proposed the need to focus on other systemic symptoms such as the gastrointestinal tract firstly, which could be of use for clinical work.