COVID-19 has proved to be no respecter of class, age, gender or religion and being overweight has recently added to the list. Studies have revealed that obese people are more likely to suffer serious complications or die from infections that are flu-like. A study titled ‘Obesity in patients younger than 60 years is a risk factor for COVID-19 hospital admission’ carried out in the US focusing on patients under the age of 60 revealed this fact.
From the study, COVID-19 patients below 60 years and had a Basal Metabolic Index between 30 and 34 which is considered high medically, were twice as likely to be admitted to hospital for acute care instead of being sent home, as compared to those with normal BMI.
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US solidified the study with a report on people hospitalized for COVID-19. According to the report, more than 48 per cent of the obese patients were hospitalization and in intensive-care admission aged less than 60 years old.
Experts say that most patients with high BMI suffering from breathing problems that range including simple shortness of breath. Excess weight makes it more difficult for the diaphragm and lungs to expand and inhale oxygen. Starved of oxygen, organs will begin to fail which explains why obese people’s lungs tend to fail faster when the infected with COVID-19 compared to a healthy person as the virus spreads deep into the lungs and causing complications such as pneumonia. Youths, particularly those obese, have been encouraged to be extremely cautious.
