Overweight increases COVID-19 morbidity and mortality

Abstract

Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic is characterized by a significant decrease in mortality, however, the scale of infection of the population with SARS-CoV-2 is many times higher than the results of previous waves, so scientific research related to understanding the fundamental principles of the processes of origin and development of COVID-19 is extremely relevant today and will remain relevant for a long time to come. The scientific community is actively discussing the paradoxical effect of an avalanche-like morbidity and mortality of the population in most countries that are at a high level of socio-economic development, one of the reasons for which may be the prevalence of overweight people. The authors carried out a correlation analysis of the relationships between the prevalence of overweight (OW) in men and women in 173 countries of the world, incidence and mortality, the value of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of the state, and the human development index (HDI). A review of the state of the problem and our statistical calculations clearly indicate that the prevalence of overweight is accompanied by an increase in the incidence and mortality of the population from COVID-19. The level of incidence and mortality of the population is associated with an exponential relationship with the prevalence of overweight both among the male and female population of the state. The prevalence of overweight has a slightly stronger effect on the increase in morbidity compared to the increase in mortality. The degree of association between incidence/mortality and the prevalence of overweight among men/women in 2021 is lower than in 2020, but the difference is not significant. This suggests that large-scale vaccination of the population in countries with high GDP per capita and high HDI only marginally reduced the impact of OW prevalence on COVID-19 incidence and mortality. The prevalence of overweight in the population is directly proportional to GDP per capita and, to a greater extent, to the HDI. This, in the opinion of the authors, is one of the main reasons for the significantly higher incidence and mortality in countries with a high level of socioeconomic development/