Background: From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, new SARS-CoV-2 variants have emerged that potentially affect transmissibility, severity, and immune evasion in infected individuals. In the present systematic review, the impact of different SARS-CoV-2 variants on clinical outcomes is analyzed. Methods: A systematic review was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020. Two databases (PubMed and ScienceDirect) were searched for original articles published from 1 January 2020 to 23 November 2021. The articles that met the selection criteria were appraised according to the Newcastle–Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale. Results: Thirty-three articles were included, involving a total of 253,209 patients and 188,944 partial or complete SARS-CoV-2 sequences. The most reported SARS-CoV-2 variants showed changes in the spike protein, N protein, RdRp and NSP3. In 28 scenarios, SARS-CoV-2 variants were found to be associated with a mild to severe or even fatal clinical outcome, 15 articles reported such association to be statistically significant. Adjustments in eight of them were made for age, sex and other covariates. Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 variants can potentially have an impact on clinical outcomes; future studies focused on this topic should consider several covariates that influence the clinical course of the disease.
【저자키워드】 Health care, outcome assessment, severity, mutations, clinical outcomes, SARS-CoV-2 variants, Clinical presentations, 【초록키워드】 review, COVID-19 pandemic, variant, SARS-CoV-2 variant, systematic review, Sex, database, Clinical outcome, immune evasion, Clinical course, Transmissibility, Patient, N protein, Reporting, RdRP, Mild, age, scale, Quality, covariates, assessment, association, criteria, Topic, infected individuals, SARS-CoV-2 sequences, item, covariate, article, Affect, Complete, new SARS-CoV-2, analyzed, reported, the disease, eight, was performed, searched, changes in, the spike protein, statistically significant, Adjustment, 【제목키워드】 SARS-CoV-2, review, clinical,