Relationship between obesity and the occurrence of negative outcome in patients hospitalized with COVID-19: integrative literature review

Abstract

Objective: To verify the relationship between obesity and the occurrence of negative outcomes in hospitalized patients. Methodology: An integrative review was carried out using the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health (PubMed) and the Virtual Health Library (VLH/BVS) database. Results: It was observed that obese patients are 2 to 5 times more likely to need Invasive Mechanical Ventilation (IMV) when admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. Patients with high BMI (obese) and who needed mechanical ventilation had a mortality rate above 60%. The risk increases as the patient has other pathologies, this fact is shown that mortality by COVID-19 has multifactorial causes. Conclusion: The study showed that obesity is a risk factor associated with the increased development of the severe form of the disease, usually associated with other pathologies (hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases). That is, obesity increases the likelihood of unfavorable outcomes.