Chronic liver disease independently associated with COVID-19 severity: evidence based on adjusted effect estimates

Excerpt

Recently, a meta-analysis by Kovalic et al. reported that chronic liver disease was significantly associated with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and mortality [1]. This is an interesting study. However, the pooled effect on the association between chronic liver disease and severe COVID-19 was estimated based on un-adjusted effect sizes in Kovalic et al.’s study [1]. It has been considered that several factors such as gender, age and certain comorbidities significantly influenced COVID-19 outcomes [2‐5]. This suggests that these factors might modulate the relationship between chronic liver disease and COVID-19 severity. Therefore, it is urgently required to clarify this association by performing a quantitative meta-analysis based on adjusted effect estimates. …