Obesity Plays a Role in COVID-19

Obesity is a disease that affects millions of people worldwide. The disease is known to be associated with certain types of cancer, including breast and colon cancer. And the disease is known to be associated with diabetes and heart disease. With respect to COVID-19, researchers have concluded that obesity plays a role in the virus. Obesity can be associated with mortality in those with COVID-19. Further, overweight/obesity can be a factor in COVID-19 related pneumonia.

One study, in the form of a meta-analysis, indicated that those suffering from COVID-19 have poor outcomes when they are obese. The researchers did a scientific literature search for COVID-19 related studies. Included in the database search were the following databases: Pubmed, EMBASE, Google, Google scholar, Springer, Elsevier, the Lancet, and Oxford journals. The researchers used keywords and phrases such as COVID-19 and "obesity mortality during COVID-19." After excluding studies that didn’t satisfy their inclusion criteria, the researchers chose 14 studies for the analysis. “The primary objective of [the] study was to find out the effect of overweight or obesity on patients suffering from COVID-19.”

The researchers concluded that “patients with obesity are at high risk of mortality from COVID-19 infection.” Further, the results of the study indicated that age and gender are “significantly associated with COVID-19 mortality.”

Another study, performed in Germany, looked at the Association between COVID-19 and pneumonia and overweight/obese subjects. The researcher used survey results for the analysis. The researchers focused on people with a history of COVID-19 who were 18 years or older. All participants in the study had to be diagnosed using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) or a retrospective antibody test. There were 220 participants in the survey, and 204 of the participants had experienced COVID-19.

And the researchers concluded that there is “an association of overweight/obesity with signs of pneumonia in COVID-19.” The researchers went on to say that the possible association between overweight/obesity, COVID-19 and pneumonia “should be investigated further to possibly reduce the proportion of severe cases of COVID-19.”

The above studies show that obesity is negatively associated with COVID-19, just as obesity is negatively associated with cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other conditions. Treating obesity and overweight should be a part of a patient's overall treatment protocol.

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