A woman is walking down Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.
Jeff Haynes | AFP | Getty Images
An overwhelming majority of people who were hospitalized, needed a ventilator or died because of Covid-19 were overweight or obese, the CDC said in a new study Monday.
Of the 148,494 adults who were diagnosed with Covid-19 during an emergency department or inpatient visit to 238 U.S. hospitals from March to December, 71,491 were hospitalized. Of those admitted, 27.8% were overweight and 50.2% were obese, according to the CDC report. Overweight is defined as having a body mass index of 25 or more, while obesity is defined as having a BMI of 30 or more.
The agency found that the risk for hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths was lowest among people with a BMI under 25. The risk of severe illness “rose sharply,” however, as BMIs rose, especially in people 65 and older, the agency said.
Just over 42% of the US population was considered obese in 2018, according to the agency’s latest statistics.
It doesn’t take a lot of extra pounds to be considered overweight or obese. A 5-foot-10-inch man at 175 pounds and a 5-foot-4-inch woman at 146 pounds would both be considered overweight with a BMI of just over 25, according to the CDC’s BMI computer. A man and a woman of the same height would be considered obese at 210 pounds and 175 pounds respectively.
As clinicians develop care plans for patients with COVID-19, they should consider the risk of severe outcomes in patients with higher BMI, especially for those with severe obesity, the agency wrote.
The CDC added that the results highlight the clinical and public health implications of higher BMIs, including the promotion of Covid prevention strategies, such as ongoing vaccine prioritization, masking, and policies to ensure community access to nutrition and physical activity.
Obesity is a common and expensive chronic disease in the United States. Non-Hispanic black adults have the highest prevalence of self-reported obesity in the United States, followed by Hispanic adults and non-Hispanic white people, according to the CDC.
The CDC has previously noted that obesity increases the risk of serious illness, including hospitalizations. Obesity is linked to impaired immune function and decreased lung capacity, which can make ventilation more difficult, the agency said.
The study had limitations, the CDC said. Risk estimates for severe Covid-19 were measured only in adults receiving hospital care. Therefore, these estimates may differ from the risk in all adults with Covid, the CDC said. In addition, only patients with information on weight and reported weight were included in the report.
The CDC obtained data from PHD-SR, a large, hospital-based database.