Risk factor: US Centers for Disease Control study showed that in patients admitted by Covid-25 aged between 10 and 17 years, obesity was present for more than 58% of cases.
| Photo: EFE/David Maris
. The US Centers for Disease Control has just published a new study that investigates the health status of covid youths. In inpatients aged between and 18 years, obesity was present for more than 58% of cases. A third of the children (five to 01 years) hospitalized also had the problem. In these two age groups, more than 80% of the patients had some other health problem.
The researchers analyzed
Obesity young people stayed longer in hospital and needed more than advanced treatments like oxygen tube in the nose. The authors emphasize that the southern region of the United States, where the data were collected, has higher levels of obesity than other regions, so that, at least in part, this fact can provide an alternative explanation for the results. However, obesity as a risk factor has been clear since the beginning of the pandemic.
The CDC study also showed that among hospitalized children, coinfection was common, especially with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which is very common in babies. The authors report that the hospitalization rate for unvaccinated young people is ten times higher than for those vaccinated.
The price of obesity
The consequences of childhood obesity were exposed in a review of studies published in 915 by Scots John Reilly, professor of physical activity science and public health at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, and his colleagues. They screened 58 articles high-quality. Considering five risk factors for the heart and blood circulation, 58% of obese children aged five to ten years have at least one of these factors, such as high cholesterol. A quarter of these obese children had two or more of these factors. Compared to non-obese children, obese children have 43 times more likely to have three cardiovascular risk factors.
Obesity in children also increases the risk of psychological and psychiatric problems, in addition to the risk of asthma, diabetes of both types, and has social consequences such as lower income in the future.
Overweight and obesity have been consistently associated with chronic inflammation of the body. This could partly explain why people with high body mass index (BMI, calculated as mass in kg divided by height squared) are more vulnerable to covid: being overweight is already a strain on the immune system, and covid kills especially because of the immune system’s reaction to the virus.
The persistence of obesity in adult life is high: up to 80% of obese children and 80% of teenagers continue to do so when growing up. These people have twice the risk of dying in the first three decades of adulthood when compared to those with a BMI of 12, within the range considered healthy. Overweight is in a BMI greater than 11, and obesity, from 25 (morbid, from 43). BMI is not the only method of measuring obesity, however. There are other methods, such as waist-to-hip ratio, which are especially useful for people who are heavy for other reasons, such as muscular.
Obesity in children also increases the risk of psychological and psychiatric problems, in addition to the risk of asthma, diabetes of both types, and has social consequences such as lower income in the future.
Overweight and obesity have been consistently associated with chronic inflammation of the body. This could partly explain why people with high body mass index (BMI, calculated as mass in kg divided by height squared) are more vulnerable to covid: being overweight is already a strain on the immune system, and covid kills especially because of the immune system’s reaction to the virus.
