Is COVID-19 severity associated with telomere length? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

"Declarations Conflict of interestNone. Ethical approvalThis article does not involve human participants or animals. Conflict of interest None."

"Funding This study received no funding. However, the health technology resource center is supported by Department of Health Research, New Delhi."

"The present systematic review was conducted adhering to the preferred reporting items of systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines [], and the protocol was registered at PROSPERO (PROSPERO ID: CRD42022311400). Observational studies that evaluated the association of TL or telomerase activity with COVID-19 severity were systematically searched using key terms from inception to November 24, 2022, in PubMed-Medline, Scopus, EMBASE, Medrxiv, Biorxiv, EuroPMC, and SSRN databases. The search terms were constructed based on the PEO framework (i.e., Problem COVID-19, Exposure telomere shortening and Outcome-Severe COVID-19 disease). Additional keywords identified during the search were also included in the systematic search. A sensitivity and precision maximizing strategy were adopted to identify the relevant studies. The detailed search terms and strategies are reported in Suppl Table 1, 2. The last search was performed on November 24, 2022."