Could obesity be a risk factor for adverse clinical outcomes of COVID-19? Review article

Abstract

Aims: This narrative review’s purpose was to verify a possible association between obesity and COVID-19-related outcomes. Methods: A PubMed research was done in May 2020, and after the eligibility criteria, 10 articles were included, which were analyzed, and its results compared. Results: It was observed that, because of the changes caused by obesity in the organism, this comorbidity is an important risk factor for Sars-CoV-2’s infection severity and hospital stay. Moreover, obesity has been considered a risk factor for adverse clinical outcomes. Also, it was possible to notice that most individuals with obesity were male, therefore a direct relation was traced between men with obesity and COVID-19’s severity, and this population required more intubation and those older than 20 years old presented higher mortality rate. Besides that, the association between obesity and other comorbidities seems to worsen even more the infectious state. Conclusions: However, it was not possible to find a pathophysiological mechanism that can fully explain those associations. Therefore, more studies are vital to understand this subject.