Table 4 Potential risk factors for disease

Age

Patients older than those with COVID-19 and younger than those with MERS (descriptive) [40]

Younger ages (median 45 years) in patients with COVID-19 than other pneumonia (median 61) (statistical test) [22]

Increasing risk of positivity for SARS-CoV-2 among COVID-19 suspects (on the basis of symptoms/contact tracing) with age (odds ratio 1.02) but unclear categorisation of age (multivariable regression) [33]

Median age 60 years in those with COVID-19 and 61 in those with other viral pneumonia (descriptive) [30]

Mean age 50 years in COVID-19 patients vs. 44 in individuals with other pneumonia (statistical test) [24]

Sex

Sex ratio skewed towards men for COVID-19, akin to MERS but not SARS (descriptive) [40]

Sex ratio skewed towards men for COVID-19 versus other viral pneumonia (descriptive) [30]

Greater proportion male in COVID-19 versus other pneumonia, although small sample size and thus low statistical certainty (statistical test) [24]

Increasing risk of positivity for SARS-CoV-2 among COVID-19 suspects (on the basis of symptoms/contact tracing) among males versus female (odds ratio 1.16) (logistic regression) [33]

Sex distribution similar amongst patients with COVID-19 and other pneumonia (statistical test) [22]

Ethnicity

Higher percentage of Black and Asian individuals amongst COVID-19 patients than patients with other viral pneumonias (descriptive) [30]

Index of multiple deprivation

Distribution of deprivation similar across COVID-19 and other viral pneumonia (descriptive) [30]

Body mass index

Greater proportion of COVID-19 patients had higher body mass index than individuals with other pneumonia (descriptive) [37]

Greater proportion of COVID-19 patients had higher body mass index than individuals with other viral pneumonia (descriptive) [30]

Pregnancy

Percentage of women who were pregnant similar across COVID-19 and other viral pneumonia (descriptive) [30]