Meta-analysis reveals that rheumatoid arthritis is associated with worse clinical outcomes among patients with COVID-19

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are reported to be more vulnerable to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), so clinical severity is a particular concern for them. This meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the clinical outcomes in RA patients with COVID-19. A systematic literature search was performed in electronic databases for relevant articles published from January 2020 to October 2022. We extracted necessary relevant data and Egger's test was used to evaluate the risk of publication bias. This meta-analysis included 9 studies with a total of 12 339 RA patients with COVID-19 and 685 982 non-RA patients with COVID-19. We found serious adverse outcomes in RA patients with COVID-19, including the rates of severity (OR: 1.59, 95% CI: 1.23-2.05, p = .0004), hospitalization (OR: 1.73, 95% CI: 1.55-1.92, p < .00001), mortality (OR: 1.92, 95% CI: 1.67-2.20, p < .00001), mechanical ventilation (OR: 1.64, 95% CI: 1.47-1.84, p < .00001), despite no significant difference observed in ICU admission (OR: 1.37, 95% CI: 0.95-1.98, p = .09). Our data suggests that RA patients had an increased risk of adverse clinical outcomes with COVID-19 infection.