Yousef Alimohamadi|Maryam Taghdir|Mojtaba Sepandi
Estimate of the Basic Reproduction Number for COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Iran University of Medical Sciences|Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences|Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences
objectives outbreak coronavirus disease 2019 covid19 one main public health challenges currently facing world high transmissibility covid19 already caused extensive morbidity mortality many countries throughout world accurate estimation basic reproduction number r0 covid19 would beneficial prevention programs light discrepancies original research issue systematic review metaanalysis aimed estimate pooled r0 covid19 current outbreak methods international databases including google scholar science direct pubmed scopus searched identify studies conducted regarding r0 covid19 articles searched using following keywords covid19 basic reproduction number r0 heterogeneity among studies assessed using i2 index cochran q test t2 randomeffects model used estimate r0 study results mean reported r0 identified articles 338140 range 190 649 according results randomeffects model pooled r0 covid19 estimated 332 95 confidence interval 281 382 according results metaregression analysis type model used estimate r0 significant effect heterogeneity among studies p081 conclusions considering estimated r0 covid19 reducing number contacts within population necessary step control epidemic estimated overall r0 higher world health organization estimate key words basic reproduction number covid19 metaanalysis public health outbreak