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Meta-Analysis
. 2021 Jan;93(1):257-261.
doi: 10.1002/jmv.26237. Epub 2020 Oct 5.

Obesity aggravates COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Jun Yang  1 , Jiahui Hu  2 , Chunyan Zhu  1
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Obesity aggravates COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Jun Yang et al. J Med Virol. 2021 Jan.

Abstract

Obesity and COVID-19 are both worldwide epidemics now. There may be some potential relationships between them, but little is known. This study was done to explore this relationship through literature search, systematic review, and meta-analysis. Pubmed, Embase, WOS, Cochrane, CNKI, Wanfang, and Sinomed databases were searched to collect literature concerning obesity and COVID-19. Systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted after literature screening, quality assessment, and data extraction. A total of 180 articles were initially searched after duplicate removal, and 9 were finally included in our analysis. Results show that severe COVID-19 patients have a higher body mass index than non-severe ones (WMD = 2.67; 95% CI, 1.52-3.82); COVID-19 patients with obesity were more severely affected and have a worse outcome than those without (OR = 2.31; 95% CI, 1.3-4.12). Obesity may aggravate COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; meta-analysis; obesity; risk factor; systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflict of interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart of included studies
Figure 2
Figure 2
Meta‐analysis of BMI in severe vs non‐severe COVID‐19. A, Forest plot. B, Sensitivity analysis
Figure 3
Figure 3
Meta‐analysis of the risk of obese patients to develop into severe COVID‐19. A, Forest plot. B, Sensitivity analysis
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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