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We thank Shi et al 1 for their interest and comments on our research article ‘Prevalence and clinical outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis’.2 The following is our point by point reply to their comments.
First, in terms of case-controlled study, we included studies with data regarding the prevalence or clinical outcomes of COVID-19 in patients with autoimmune diseases (ADs) and patients without ADs or the general population. We agree that subgroup analysis according to study design can often be useful in identifying heterogeneity.
Second, we agree that the risk of bias (RoB) assessment is an important step to conduct systematic review and meta-analysis. As Shi et al suggested, several tools are available to assess the RoB of individual studies included …
Footnotes
Handling editor Josef S Smolen
Contributors SA, SH, DM and AS: drafted the manuscript. SA and AS: critically reviewed the manuscript.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.