A woman walks down Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.
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An overwhelming majority of people who have been hospitalized, needed a ventilator, or died from Covid-19 have been overweight or obese, the CDC said in a new study.
Among 148,494 adults who received a diagnosis of Covid-19 during an emergency department or hospitalized 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 of hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths was lower among people with BMIs under the age of 25. The risk of serious illness “increased sharply,” as BMIs rose, especially among people 65 and older, according to the agency.
Just over 42% of the U.S. population considered themselves obese in 2018, according to the agency’s latest statistics.
It doesn’t take many extra pounds to consider yourself overweight or obese. A 5-foot, 10-inch 175-pound man and a 5-foot, 4-inch, 146-pound woman would be considered overweight with a BMI of just over 25, according to the CDC’s BMI calculator. A man and a woman of the same heights would be considered obese at 210 pounds and 175 pounds, respectively.
“As physicians develop care plans for patients with COVID-19, they should consider the risk of serious outcomes in patients with higher BMI, especially for those with severe obesity,” the agency wrote.
The CDC added that the findings highlight the clinical and public health implications of a higher BMI, including the promotion of Covid prevention strategies such as continued vaccine prioritization, masking, and policies to ensure community access to nutrition and physical activity.
Obesity is a common and costly chronic disease in the U.S. Black non-Hispanic adults have the highest prevalence of self-reported obesity in the U.S., followed by Hispanic adults and non-Hispanic white people, according to the CDC.
The CDC has previously noted that being obese increases the risk of serious illness, including hospitalizations. Obesity is linked to a deterioration in immune function and a decrease in lung capacity that can hinder ventilation, the agency said.
The study had limitations, the CDC said. Severe Covid-19 risk estimates were only measured among adults who received care in a hospital. Therefore, these estimates may differ from the risk among all adults with Covid, the CDC said. In addition, only patients with information on height and weight were included in the report.
The CDC obtained data from PHD-SR, a large hospital-based database.