3.2 Prevalence of COVID-19 in autoimmune rheumatic diseases
A meta-analysis of 68 observational studies, including 384582 patients with ARDs, showed that the prevalence of COVID-19 was 0.061(95%CI:0.056-0.066)(Figure 2). In the subgroup analyses, the prevalences of COVID-19 in RA, systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE), ankylosing spondylitis(AS), connective tissue disease(CTD) and psoriatic arthritis(PsA) were 0.028(95%CI:0.019-0.037), 0.047(95%CI:0.033-0.061), 0.074(95%CI:0.039-0.108), 0.058(95%CI:0.046-0.070) and 0.194(95%CI:0.090-0.297), respectively RA patients had the lowest prevalence, and PsA patients had the highest. The prevalence of COVID-19 in vasculitis and systemic sclerosis(SSc) was not statistically significant(Figure p3). Heterogeneity was considerable overall(I2=99.5%), and in most subgroup analyses, primarily due to the use of drugs for different diseases and differences in study sizes.