Obesity increases chances of COVID-19 death by 48%: study

A new study on the effects of the COVID-19 infection on obese people has found that it has high chances of fatality among them, and vaccines, when they are eventually introduced to the public, may also not be as effective on obese people.

It has already been established that older people and those who are immunocompromised are at a higher risk of contracting the severe symptoms of COVID-19 if they contract the new coronavirus infection. This includes people with underlying conditions such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, respiratory diseases such as asthma and COPD, cancer and high blood pressure.

The latest study, conducted by researchers from the University of North Carolina, the World Bank and the Saudi Health Council, found that the chances of death among obese patients with COVID-19 was 48% higher than non-obese patients. Additionally, they said, any new vaccine that would be rolled out would be less effective among the obese population. The findings of the study were published in the journal Obesity Reviews.

So far, more than 24 million people have been affected by this viral infection that has also claimed more than 826,000 lives globally, putting several more lives at risk due to the burden of various other illnesses and complications. According to a 2016 report by the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1.9 billion adults are overweight and 650 million out of them are obese.

How obesity makes COVID-19 worse
Connection of obesity and poor COVID-19 outcomes

How obesity makes COVID-19 worse

Obesity is usually determined by a person's body mass index (BMI), which is calculated by dividing the body weight in kilograms by the square of height in metres. Those with a BMI of 25-29.9 are considered to be overweight, while anyone with a BMI of over 30 is said to be obese.

Read more: COVID-19 and obesity

The study states that those with a BMI of over 30 are at a 113% higher risk of being hospitalised after getting infected with COVID-19, in addition to having a 74% higher likelihood of requiring intensive care for COVID-19. Besides these probabilities, the chances of death were also increased by as much as 48%.

The researchers studied data from over 75 other studies done on the subject around the world, which totals to a sample size of about four lakh patients, and found that metabolic changes that happen in the body due to obesity like inflammation and the inability to use insulin efficiently affect the body's capability to stave off infections. They also found that the COVID-19 infection could affect the blood glucose levels of diabetic patients which further affects the immune response.

Read more: Cytokine storm

These were critical findings for the researchers who have advised governments to put more focus on devising strategies to counter this global pandemic, as well as increase awareness and reduce the prevalence of obesity, a condition which has been on the rise around the world.

They also urged the scientific and medical community to test the vaccines in development keeping in mind people with conditions such as obesity, so that they could study the available data from clinical trials for the effects on obese people.

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Connection of obesity and poor COVID-19 outcomes

Several studies in the past few months have highlighted why people who are obese are at a higher risk of contracting the severe symptoms of COVID-19 or even face death.

Obese people are more vulnerable due to the underlying conditions they develop such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes, hypertension as well as higher cholesterol levels, all of which contribute to the patient developing heart disease.

A study published in Diabetes Care looking into mortality among adult black patients with COVID-19 and metabolic syndrome found that they are five times more likely to need intensive care, and 3.4 times more likely to die from the respiratory infection.

Another study published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal revealed that overweight and obese people were more likely to catch the COVID-19 infection.

A recent article published in the scientific journal The Lancet, however, has cautioned against countries' policies to curb obesity among people to bring the infections and mortalities down. The United Kingdom, for instance, last month introduced a national strategy for countering obesity that asked people to "Lose weight to beat COVID-19 and protect the NHS".

This comes after the country reported the highest number of excess deaths in Europe, adding another 62,600 deaths in comparison to last year's deaths in the country.

Although efforts to control obesity in the country may be well-intentioned, it still puts a lot of stigma and blame on people living with obesity. However, the article continued by adding that obesity wasn't the biggest contributor to the country's COVID-19 deaths.

Read more: COVID-19 and stigma