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
. 2021 Aug 29;2(4):279-288.
doi: 10.36518/2689-0216.1276. eCollection 2021.

Obesity, Race, and COVID-19 Mortality: Results from a Large Cohort Early in the Pandemic

Eric K Shaw  1   2 , Anyul Ferez-Pinzon  2 , Micah Mabe  2 , Mike Flynn  3 , Christopher K Senkowski  1
Affiliations

Obesity, Race, and COVID-19 Mortality: Results from a Large Cohort Early in the Pandemic

Eric K Shaw et al. HCA Healthc J Med. .

Abstract

Background: Obesity has increased progressively in the United States and is a known risk factor for several diseases such as type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease, stroke and hypertension. Amid the current pandemic, concerns have been raised about obesity as a risk factor for COVID-19 positive patients. The primary goal of this study was to explore the association between obesity and hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients. Our secondary objective was to explore the relationship between obesity and race on hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional, retrospective analysis using data from 186 hospitals from across the United States and the United Kingdom during the first quarter of 2020. Extraction provided data from 25,894 patients who were tested for COVID-19, of whom 2,977 were positive. Patients were stratified into standard WHO categories for BMI and by race.

Results: Bivariate analysis revealed significant relationships between mortality and sex (p<0.001) When BMI was analyzed as a continuous variable, multivariate analysis revealed a significant influence of BMI on mortality (odds ratio=1.291, p<0.05).

Conclusion: COVID-19 mortality was significantly related to BMI, age and select co-morbidities, but race/ethnicity was not a predictor of mortality when controlling for other variables.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; body mass index; comorbidity; coronavirus infections; epidemiologic factors; obesity; pandemics; race factors; risk factors.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.

References

    1. Hales CM, Carroll MD, Fryar CD, Ogden CL. Prevalence of Obesity and Severe Obesity Among Adults: United States, 2017–2018. NCHS Data Brief. 2020;360:1–8. - PubMed
    1. Purnell JQ. Definitions, Classification, and Epidemiology of Obesity. In: Feingold KR, Anawalt B, Boyce A, et al., editors. Endotext. South Dartmouth (MA): MDText.com, Inc; Apr 12, 2018.
    1. De Pergola G, Silvestris F. Obesity as a major risk factor for cancer. J Obes. 2013;2013:291546. doi: 10.1155/2013/291546. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Klonoff DC, Umpierrez GE. Letter to the Editor: COVID-19 in patients with diabetes: risk factors that increase morbidity. Metabolism. 2020;108:154224. doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2020.154224. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wang B, Li R, Lu Z, Huang Y. Does comorbidity increase the risk of patients with COVID-19: evidence from meta-analysis. Aging (Albany NY) 2020;12(7):6049–6057. doi: 10.18632/aging.103000. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources