The prevalence of thyroid disorders in COVID-19 patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives

To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the prevalence of thyroid disorders in COVID-19 patients.

Data sources

Scopus, PubMed, ISI Web of Science, and Google Scholar databases were used in this review. We also consider the results of grey literature.

Study selections

Cohort, cross-sectional, and case-control studies were included.

Data extraction and synthesis

The required data were extracted by the first author of the article and reviewed by the second author. The Pooled prevalence of outcomes of interest was applied using the meta-prop method with a pooled estimate after Freeman-Tukey Double Arcsine Transformation to stabilize the variances.

Outcomes and measured

The different thyroid disorders were the main outcomes of this study. The diseases include non-thyroidal illness syndrome, thyrotoxicosis, hypothyroidism, isolated elevated free T4, and isolated low free T4.

Results

Eight articles were included in our meta-analysis(Total participants: 1654). The pooled prevalence of events hypothyroidism, isolated elevated FT4, isolated low FT4, NTIS, and thyrotoxicosis were estimated (Pooled P = 3%, 95% CI:2–5%, I2: 78%), (Pooled P = 2%, 95% CI: 0–4%, I2: 66%), (Pooled P = 1%, 95% CI: 0–1%, I2: 0%), (Pooled P = 26%, 95% CI: 10–42%, I2: 98%), and (Pooled P = 10%, 95% CI: 4–16%, I2: 89%), respectively.

Conclusion

Thyroid dysfunction is common in COVID-19 patients, with a high prevalence of non-thyroidal illness syndrome (NTIS) and thyrotoxicosis. Our meta-analysis found a 26% prevalence of NTIS and a 10% prevalence of thyrotoxicosis.

Systematic review registration

PROSPERO CRD42022312601.