The Global Prevalence of Pulmonary Fibrosis Among Post–COVID-19 Follow-up Patients

Abstract

Abstract Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is the virus that causes a massive pandemic of the decade and has brought more than 215 million infections and nearly 4.5 million deaths worldwide as of August 2021. In addition, survivors of COVID-19 patients suffer from acute, chronic, and persistent lung problems and pulmonary fibrosis, which is the sequel of future morbidity and mortality. Method Electronic databases searched were PubMed, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, HINARI, Web of Science, and direct Google search. For publication bias, a funnel plot and the Egger regression test were used. The I 2 statistic was used to check the heterogeneity between the studies. DerSimonian and Laird random-effects model was applied to estimate the pooled effect size. Subgroup analysis was done by using publication year and mean sample size. For the effect of a single study on the overall estimation, sensitivity analysis was deployed. STATA version 14 software using the random-effects model was used to conduct all statistical analyses. Result The study included 9 studies with a total sample size of 1241. The overall pooled prevalence of pulmonary fibrosis among post–COVID follow-up patients was found to be 54.04% (95% confidence interval, 40.54%–67.54%). Conclusions The overall pooled prevalence of pulmonary fibrosis among post–COVID-19 follow-up patients was higher in magnitude and recognized as a potential sequela among survivors. Because of exaggerated viral and immune response, further searching for better diagnostic and efficacious treatment strategies is recommended.