engleski

Impact of obesity on clinical outcomes in patients with severe COVID-19

Objectives: Obesity and COVID-19 are currently pandemic within pandemic. Around one-fifth of population is considered obese. Obesity is identified as a risk factor for developing severe COVID-19. This may be a result of chronic low- grade inflammation, impaired immune function and metabolic disorders. The aim of this study was to describe clinical course and outcomes of severe COVID-19 disease according to the presence of obesity. Methods: A case-control study included consecutively hospitalized adult patients with severe COVID-19 at the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Zagreb, Croatia between March and May 2021. All patients had their BMI calculated. Obesity was defined as body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m2. Demographic, clinical and laboratory data was collected and correlated to clinical outcomes. Results: Of the 114 patients included in the study, 63 (55.3%) were obese (61.9% male ; mean age of 57.8 years) and 51 (44.7%) were non-obese (64.7% male ; mean age 60.7 years). Except for higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus (21% vs 10%) and arterial hypertension (52% vs 39%) there were no differences in other comorbidities. Except for remdesivir that was more frequently prescribed to obese patients (74% vs 62%), there were no other difference in the choice of therapy. Obese group had higher inflammatory markers CRP and ferritin, while non-obese group had higher values of procalcitonin and IL-6. Non-obese group also had higher values of ALT, AST and GGT. Patients who were obese had longer duration of hospitalization (12 vs 9 days), more frequently required noninvasive ventilation or high-flow oxygen (23.8% vs 7.8%) and were more often admitted to the ICU. They also had higher rate of pulmonary embolism (22.2% vs 5.8%) and mortality (7.9% vs 1.9%). Conclusions: Our data suggests that obesity might be associated with COVID-19 severity and is linked to unfavorable outcomes in hospitalized patients.

COVID-19 ; obesity

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