worldwide prevalence of hypertension in patients with covid-19: a meta-analysis and systematic review

Background: this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess the ratio of patients with hypertension for whom coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) has been diagnosed in the world. in addition, the effect of covid-19 on the outcomes of hypertension was evaluated. methods: to find articles published by july 2020, a comprehensive systematic search was carried out in five electronic databases, including pubmed, scopus, embase, and web of science. the meta-analysis entailed all relevant articles on the clinical and epidemiological features of patients with covid-19. two researchers independently reviewed the eligible post-selection studies, and finally, the discrepancies between the opinions of the two researchers were resolved by a third arbitrator. two researchers independently examined the risk of bias using the newcastle-ottawa scale. results: the pooled prevalence of high blood pressure in patients hospitalized with covid-19 worldwide was obtained as 31% (95% ci: 23 - 38%). the changes for hypertension prevalence in different studies included in the meta-analysis varied from 2 to 64%. moreover, the results of subgroups analysis based on different countries demonstrated that the prevalence of hypertension in patients with covid-19 in china and other countries was 29% (95% ci: 24 - 34%) and 32% (95% ci: 19 - 46%), respectively. conclusions: the evidence revealed that a health condition that commonly accompanies and affects the outcomes of covid-19 is hypertension. therefore, covid-19 patients with hypertension should be given priority and benefit from a preventive, therapeutic approach. furthermore, essential training should be provided by health policymakers.