Covid Complications: The higher the BMI, the bigger the risk

COVID-19 patients, who have a high body mass index or BMI have an increased risk of severe health complexities, including the possibility of death, revealed a new study. The study which was published in PLOS, an Open Access publisher, was led by Dr. Lovisa Sjögren of the University of Gothenburg at Sweden.

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The research team analysed data from 1,649 COVID-19 patients from the Swedish Intensive Care Registry, a national quality registry that covers all ICUs in Sweden. The patients included in the study were admitted to ICUs during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. A majority of the study cohort had a high BMI with 78.3% overweight patients.

It was observed that there was a significant association between increasing BMI and the composite outcome of death during intensive care or an ICU stay of longer than 14 days in survivors. Moreover, this association remained despite other comorbidities like cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, liver or kidney disease.

The team thereby concluded that obesity is an independent risk factor for the severe outcomes from intensive care in patients with COVID-19 and suggested that BMI must be included in the severity scoring for COVID-19 ICU patients.