ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate the clinical characteristics and outcome of novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19)patients with different body mass index (BMI), and to provide the basis for disease assessment and prognosis.Methods:The clinical data of 541 patients with COVID-19 diagnosed in Xiaogan Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University of Science and Technology from January 16 to March 28, 2020 were collected. The patients were divided into normal weight group, overweight group, and obesity group according to BMI. The clinical characteristics and outcomes of the three groups were compared. The correlation between BMI and clinical classification was analyzed by ordinal logistic regression.Results:There were 288 cases (53.23%) in normal weight group, 193 cases (35.67%) in overweight group, and 60 cases (11.09%) in obesity group. Compared with normal weight group, overweight and obesity groups displayed higher proportion of hypertension, with increased levels of white blood cells, neutrophils, C reactive protein, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, and triglyceride in laboratory test results, and higher proportion of severe and critical illness ( P<0.05 or P<0.01). After adjusting for age, gender, and underlying diseases, regression analysis showed that higher BMI predicted more severe clinical classification ( OR=1.079, 95% CI 1.010-1.154). Conclusion:In COVID-19 patients, overweight and obese patients are more likely to develop into severe and critical illness, suggesting that obesity may be an important risk factor affecting the clinical outcome of COVID-19.