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. 2023 Nov;6(6):e458.
doi: 10.1002/edm2.458. Epub 2023 Oct 29.

The association between obesity with treatment duration, ICU length of stay and the risk of death in critically ill patients with COVID-19

Maryam Gholamalizadeh  1 , Mohammad Attari  2 , Mahdi Mousavi  3 , Soheila Shekari  4 , Zahra Salimi  5 , Asma Rajabi Harsini  6 , Mobina Zeinolabedin  7 , Amin Barzkar  8 , Zahra Mahmoudi  4 , Farkhondeh Alami  9 , Samaneh Mirzaei Dahka  10 , Somayeh Gholami  11 , Masoume Rahvar  12 , Masoume Pourtaleb  12 , Sara Khoshdooz  13 , Naser Kalantari  14 , Saeid Doaei  14
Affiliations

The association between obesity with treatment duration, ICU length of stay and the risk of death in critically ill patients with COVID-19

Maryam Gholamalizadeh et al. Endocrinol Diabetes Metab. 2023 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Despite the confirmed association between higher BMI with increased risk of the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), the association between obesity with mortality in critically ill patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is not clear. The present study aimed to investigate the association between obesity with treatment duration, ICU length of stay, and the risk of death in critically ill patients with COVID-19.

Methods: This case-control study was performed on 223 patients with COVID-19 including 148 surviving patients as the control group and 75 eventually dead patients as the case group in Rasht, Iran. Data on demographic factors, comorbidities, anthropometric measurements, the length of hospitalization and the mortality were obtained from patients' medical records.

Results: The mortality rate was significantly associated with weight (OR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.002-1.083, p = .04), but not with BMI after adjustments for age, gender, length of stay in ICU, chronic diseases and smoking. The results did not change after further adjustments for biochemical and pathological factors.

Conclusions: Weight was positively associated with mortality after controlling for confounding variables. Further studies should consider the patient's body composition such as fat mass to establish the relationship between obesity and COVID-19 outcomes.

Keywords: COVID-19; ICU; bodyweight; mortality; obesity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

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