No abstract

Background Since December 2019, novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)-induced pneumonia (COVID-19) occurred in Wuhan, and rapidly spread throughout China. COVID-19 patients demonstrated significantly different outcomes in clinic. We aimed to figure out whether obesity is a risk factor influencing the progression and prognosis of COVID-19. Methods 95 patients with COVID-19 were divided into obesity group and non-obesity group according to their body mass index (BMI). The demographic data, clinical characteristics, laboratory examination, and chest computed tomography (CT) were collected, analyzed and compared between two groups. Results Our data showed that COVID-19 patients with obesity had more underlying diseases and higher mortality rate compared to those without obesity. Furthermore, patients with obesity also demonstrated more severe pathological change in lung and higher blood lymphocytes, triglycerides, IL-6, CRP, cystatin C, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), which may greatly influence disease progression and poor prognosis of COVID-19. Conclusions It suggest that obesity contributes to clinical manifestations and may influence the progression and prognosis of COVID-19 and it is considered as a potential risk factor of the prognosis of COVID-19. Special medical care and appropriate intervention should be performed in obesity patients with COVID-19 during hospitalization and later clinical follow-up, especially for those with additional other comorbidities.

In December 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia occurred in Wuhan, China, which was confirmed to be caused by a new coronavirus different from the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) (Jiang, Xia, Ying, & Lu, 2020; Tian, 2020). This virus is characterized by strong infectivity and a long incubation period after infection, and it was named as SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) on 11 February 2020.