Clinical, Immunological, and Virological SARS-CoV-2 Phenotypes in Obese and Nonobese Military Health System Beneficiaries.
J Infect Dis
; 224(9): 1462-1472, 2021 11 16.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1522217
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The mechanisms underlying the association between obesity and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity remain unclear. After verifying that obesity was a correlate of severe COVID-19 in US Military Health System (MHS) beneficiaries, we compared immunological and virological phenotypes of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in both obese and nonobese participants.METHODS:
COVID-19-infected MHS beneficiaries were enrolled, and anthropometric, clinical, and demographic data were collected. We compared the SARS-CoV-2 peak IgG humoral response and reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction viral load in obese and nonobese patients, stratified by hospitalization, utilizing logistic regression models.RESULTS:
Data from 511 COVID-19 patients were analyzed, among whom 24% were obese and 14% severely obese. Obesity was independently associated with hospitalization (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.91; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15-3.18) and need for oxygen therapy (aOR, 3.39; 95% CI, 1.61-7.11). In outpatients, severely obese had a log10 (1.89) higher nucleocapsid (N1) genome equivalents (GE)/reaction and log10 (2.62) higher N2 GE/reaction than nonobese (P = 0.03 and P < .001, respectively). We noted a correlation between body mass index and peak anti-spike protein IgG in inpatients and outpatients (coefficient = 5.48, P < .001).CONCLUSIONS:
Obesity is a strong correlate of COVID-19 severity in MHS beneficiaries. These findings offer new pathophysiological insights into the relationship between obesity and COVID-19 severity.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
/
Obesity
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
/
Young adult
Language:
English
Journal:
J Infect Dis
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Infdis
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