A systematic review and meta-analysis published in BMC Gastroenterology found no association between the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms and higher mortality risk in COVID-19 patients. Yang Wang et al. sought to find out the link between gastrointestinal symptoms and mortality in people diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Databases like Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase were comprehensively searched for data on gastrointestinal symptoms in coronavirus-infected people. Further literatures were procured by screening citations of incorporated studies and recent reviews. Only studies that assessed the mortality of SARS-CoV-2 infected people with/without gastrointestinal symptoms were incorporated.

For calculating odds ratio (OR), pooling of raw data was done. Death was comparatively evaluated between people with and without individual symptoms (abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea/vomiting), and between people with and without gastrointestinal symptoms. A total of 53 literatures with 55,245 SARS-CoV-2 people (50,290 survivors, 4955 non-survivors) were incorporated.

The presence of gastrointestinal symptoms was not linked with mortality of SARS-CoV-2 people (OR=0.88). Regarding the individual symptoms, abdominal pain (OR=1.55), diarrhea (OR=1.01), and nausea/vomiting (OR=1.16) also illustrated non-relevance with the death of coronavirus-infected people. The prognostic value of gastrointestinal symptoms in coronavirus disease needs additional research, concluded the study authors.