Objective Obesity and COVID‐19 are both world epidemics now. There may be some potential relationships between them, but we knew little. This work was to explore the relationship through literature searching, systematic review, and meta‐analysis. Methods Pubmed, Embase, WOS, Cochrane, CNKI, Wanfang, and Sinomed databases were searched to collect the literature concerning obesity and COVID‐19. Systematic review and meta‐analysis were conducted after literature screening, quality assessment, and data extraction. Results 180 articles were initially searched after duplicate removal and 9 were finally included in our analysis. Results show that severe COVID‐19 patients have higher BMI than non‐severe ones(WMD =2.67, 95%CI[1.52‐3.82]); COVID‐19 patients with obesity were more severe and have a worse outcome than those without(OR=2.31, 95%CI[1.3‐4.12]). Conclusion Obesity may aggravate COVID‐19. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This review aimed to evaluate the impact of obesity on the onset, exacerbation, and mortality of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19); and compare the effects of different degrees of obesity. PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science were searched to find articles published between December 1, 2019, and July 27, 2020. Only observational studies with specific obesity definition were included. Literature screening and data extraction were conducted simultaneously by two researchers. A random‐effects model was used to merge the effect quantity. Sensitivity analysis, subgroup analysis, and meta‐regression analysis were used to deal with the heterogeneity among studies. Forty‐one studies with 219,543 subjects and 115,635 COVID‐19 patients were included. Subjects with obesity were more likely to have positive SARS‐CoV‐2 test results (OR = 1.50; 95% CI: 1.37–1.63, I 2 = 69.2%); COVID‐19 patients with obesity had a higher incidence of hospitalization (OR = 1.54, 95% CI: 1.33–1.78, I 2 = 60.9%); hospitalized COVID‐19 patients with obesity had a higher incidence of intensive care unit admission (OR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.24–1.77, I 2 = 67.5%), invasive mechanical ventilation (OR = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.31–1.65, I 2 = 18.8%), and in‐hospital mortality (OR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.04–1.26, I 2 = 74.4%). A higher degree of obesity also indicated a higher risk of almost all of the above events. The region may be one of the causes of heterogeneity. Obesity could promote the occurrence of the whole course of COVID‐19. A higher degree of obesity may predict a higher risk. Further basic and clinical therapeutic research needs to be strengthened.

Once-weekly dulaglutide provides greater improvement in HbA1c, with weight loss and less hypoglycaemia, than once-daily insulin glargine in a population of mainly Asian patients with T2DM who had failed to achieve optimal glycaemic control on metformin and/or a sulphonylurea.

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AimsTo compare the efficacy and safety of once‐weekly glucagon‐like peptide‐1 receptor agonist dulaglutide 1.5 and 0.75 mg with glimepiride in East‐Asian patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D).Materials and methodsIn this phase III, multinational, multicentre, double‐blind, randomized, parallel‐arm, 26‐week study, patients with inadequate glycaemic control were randomized 1:1:1 to once‐weekly dulaglutide 1.5 or 0.75 mg or daily glimepiride (1‐3 mg/d). The primary endpoint was assessment of the non‐inferiority of dulaglutide (1.5 mg), as measured by change in glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), compared with glimepiride using a 0.4% non‐inferiority margin.ResultsA total of 737 patients were randomized (dulaglutide 1.5 mg, n = 244; dulaglutide 0.75 mg, n = 248; glimepiride, n = 245). At week 26, both doses of dulaglutide were non‐inferior and also superior to glimepiride for HbA1c reduction from baseline with a least squares mean difference of −6.34 mmol/mol (95% confidence interval [CI] −8.31, −4.26) or ‐0.58% (95% CI −0.76, −0.39) for dulaglutide 1.5 mg and −3.50 mmol/mol (95% CI −5.47, −1.42) or −0.32% (95% CI −0.50, −0.13) for dulaglutide 0.75 mg (P < .001). A greater proportion of patients in the dulaglutide 1.5 mg group achieved the HbA1c target of <53 mmol/mol (<7.0%) compared with the glimepiride group (74.1% vs 57.4%; P < .001). The mean body weight decreased (P < .005) and total hypoglycaemia rates were lower (P < .001) in the dulaglutide groups compared with the glimepiride group. The most common drug‐related adverse events in both dulaglutide groups (≥5% of patients) included diarrhoea, nausea, increased lipase, decreased appetite, abdominal distension and vomiting.ConclusionsDulaglutide (both doses) demonstrated superior glycaemic control vs glimepiride, with a favourable tolerability and safety profile in East‐Asian patients with T2D.