Abstract

Background: We are currently facing two pandemics: the emergent COVID-19 pandemic and the established obesity pandemic. The prevalence of obesity in adults in Saudi Arabia is 35.4%. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of obesity among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 infection at a specialized quaternary care hospital (oncology and cardiac centre) and to recognize a correlation between obesity and severe COVID-19 disease.
Methodology: This retrospective cohort study of prospectively collected data studied the relationship between obesity and the need for critical care admission, mechanical ventilation, and mortality rate in hospitalized COVID-19 patients at a single specialized quaternary care institution.
Results: From March to August 2020, 369 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized at our institution. Of these, 169 (45.8%) were obese (body mass index > 30 kg/m2). The critical care admission and mechanical ventilation were higher among obese patients but not statistically significant. The duration of intensive care unit admission was longer in the obese group versus the non-obese group. Moreover, complications related to COVID-19 infection such as pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome were elevated in obese patients (n = 98, p = 0.000) and (n = 36, p = 0.000), respectively.
Conclusion: We found that the obesity was associated with worse outcomes. Although some of our results were statistically insignificant, this might be related to our sample size and our study being conducted at a specialized quaternary hospital, i.e., there might have been selection bias. We recommend performing the research on a larger scale to confirm our results, including COVID-19 centres or community hospitals, which represent the population more accurately.

Key words: Obesity, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Saudi Arabia