Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Aug;19(8):709-16.
doi: 10.1111/j.1469-0691.2012.04003.x. Epub 2012 Sep 11.

Obesity and outcomes in patients hospitalized with pneumonia

S Kahlon  1 , D T Eurich, R S Padwal, A Malhotra, J K Minhas-Sandhu, T J Marrie, S R Majumdar
Affiliations

Obesity and outcomes in patients hospitalized with pneumonia

S Kahlon et al. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2013 Aug.

Abstract

Studies suggest obesity is paradoxically associated with better outcomes for patients with pneumonia. Therefore, we examined the impact of obesity on short-term mortality in patients hospitalized with pneumonia. For 2 years clinical and radiographic data were prospectively collected on all consecutive adults admitted with pneumonia to six hospitals in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. We identified 907 patients who also had body mass index (BMI, kg/m(2)) collected and categorized them as underweight (BMI < 18.5), normal (18.5 to <25), overweight (25 to <30) and obese (>30). Overall, 65% were >65 years, 52% were female, and 15% reported recent weight loss. Eighty-four (9%) were underweight, 358 (39%) normal, 228 (25%) overweight, and 237 (26%) obese. Two-thirds had severe pneumonia (63% PSI Class IV/V) and 79 (9%) patients died. In-hospital mortality was greatest among those that were underweight (12 [14%]) compared with normal (36 [10%]), overweight (21 [9%]) or obese (10 [4%], p <0.001 for trend). Compared with those of normal weight, obese patients had significantly lower rates of in-hospital mortality in multivariable logistic regression analyses: adjusted odds ratio (OR), 0.46; 95% CI, 0.22-0.97; p 0.04. However, compared with patients with normal weight, neither underweight (adjusted OR, 1.13; 95% CI, 0.54-2.4; p 0.7) nor overweight (adjusted OR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.52-1.69; p 0.8) were associated with in-hospital mortality. In conclusion, in patients hospitalized with pneumonia, obesity was independently associated with lower short-term mortality, while neither being underweight nor overweight were. This suggests a protective influence of BMIs > 30 kg/m(2) that requires better mechanistic understanding.

Keywords: Body mass index; community-acquired pneumonia; mortality; obesity; outcomes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Transparency Declaration

None of the authors have any conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

FIG. 1
FIG. 1
Rates of in-hospital pneumonia-related mortality according to body mass index.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Whitlock G, Lewington S, et al. Prospective Studies Collaboration. Body-mass index and cause-specific mortality in 900 000 adults: collaborative analyses of 57 prospective studies. Lancet. 2009;373:1083–1096. - PMC - PubMed
    1. The WHO Global Infobase [Internet] 2011 Available from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/ [cited August 20th, 2012]
    1. Haslam DW, James WP. Obesity Lancet. 2005;366:1197–1209. - PubMed
    1. Falagas ME, Kompoti M. Obesity and infection. Lancet Infect Dis. 2006;6:438–446. - PubMed
    1. Baik I, Curhan GC, Rimm EB, Bendich A, Willett WC, Fawzi WW. A prospective study of age and lifestyle factors in relation to community-acquired pneumonia in US men and women. Arch Intern Med. 2000;160:3082–3088. - PubMed

Publication types