Study 1: Factors associated with hospitalisation and critical illness among 4,103 patients with COVID-19 disease in New York City
By Petrilli et. al 2020
The study, conducted by the Grossman School of Medicine, looks at 4103 cases of patients with COVID-19 in New York City.
Among these, 1999 patients were hospitalised and 54% of them were younger than 65.
65% of hospitalised cases under 65 years of age were obese and 21% not obese.
For all ages, almost 50% of hospitalised patients were obese.
The data suggests that obese individuals infected with COVID-19 are 2.8 times more likely to be hospitalised.
The study shows that age and obesity are 2 most important factors in calculating outcomes.
Inflammation (measured by CRP) is strongly associated with bad outcomes and it is caused or worsened by obesity.
"The chronic condition with the strongest associated with critical illness was obesity."
"Obesity is well-recognised to be a pro-inflammatory condition."
Full article: Factors associated with hospitalisation and critical illness among 4,103 patients with COVID-19 disease in New York City
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Study 2: Obesity in patients younger than 60 years is a risk factor for COVID-19 hospital admission.
By Lighter et al. 2020
The study conducted by New York University School of Medicine examines 3615 COVID-positive patients.
The study found that patients under 60 years of age with obesity were 3.6 times more likely to go to ICU and 2.2 times more likely to be hospitalised.