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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1367480
This article is part of the Research Topic Emerging and Re-emerging Viral Infections: Epidemiology, Pathogenesis and New Methods for Control and Prevention View all 30 articles

Individual risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection during Alpha variant in high-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Provisionally accepted
Marta Moniz Marta Moniz 1,2*Sofia Pereira Sofia Pereira 2,3Patricia Soares Patricia Soares 1,2Pedro Aguiar Pedro Aguiar 1,2Helena Donato Helena Donato 4Andreia Leite Andreia Leite 1,2,5
  • 1 Comprehensive Health Research Center, CHRC, NOVA University Lisbon,, Lisbon, Portugal
  • 2 NOVA National School of Public Health, Public Health Research Centre, NOVA University Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
  • 3 Public Health Unit, Amadora Primary healthcare cluster,, Lisbon, Portugal
  • 4 Documentation and Scientific Information Service, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
  • 5 Department of Epidemiology, Doctor Ricardo Jorge National Institute of Health, Lisbon, Portugal

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objectives: This study aimed to systematically appraise risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in high-income countries during the period of predominance of the Alpha variant (January 2020 to April 2021). Methods: Four electronic databases were used to search observational studies. Literature search, study screening, data extraction and quality assessment were conducted by two authors independently. Meta-analyses were conducted for each risk factor, when appropriate. Results: From 12 094 studies, 27 were included. The larger sample size was 17 288 532 participants, more women were included, and the age range was 18-117 years old. Meta-analyses identified men [Odds Ratio (OR): 1.23, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.97-1.42), non-white ethnicity (OR: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.39-1.91), household number (OR: 1.08, 95% CI: 1.06-1.10), diabetes (OR: 1.22, 95% CI: 1.08-1.37), cancer (OR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.68-0.98), cardiovascular diseases (OR: 0.92, 95% CI: 0.84-1.00), asthma (OR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.75-0.92) and ischemic heart disease (OR: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.74-0.91) as associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Conclusions: This study indicated several risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Due to the heterogeneity of the studies included, more studies are needed to understand the factors that increase the risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

    Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, Infectious Disease, Risk-factors, Systematic review, Meta-analysis

    Received: 08 Jan 2024; Accepted: 18 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Moniz, Pereira, Soares, Aguiar, Donato and Leite. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Marta Moniz, Comprehensive Health Research Center, CHRC, NOVA University Lisbon,, Lisbon, Portugal

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.