Combination of obesity and co-morbidities leads to unfavorable outcomes in COVID-19 patients

OBJECTIVE: Obesity has been described as a significant independent risk factors of COVID-19. We aimed to study the association between obesity, co-morbidities and clinical outcomes of COVID-19. METHODS: Clinical data from 417 patients were collected retrospectively from the Al Kuwait Hospital, Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP), Dubai, United Arab Emirates, who were admitted between March and June 2020. Patients were divided according to their body mass index (BMI). Various clinical outcomes were examined: presenting symptoms, severity, major co-morbidities, ICU admission, death, ventilation, ARDS, septic shock and laboratory parameters. RESULTS: The average BMI was 29 ± 6.2 kg/m(2). BMI alone was not associated with the outcomes examined. However, class II obese patients had more co-morbidities compared to other groups. Hypertension was the most significant co-morbidity associated with obesity. Patients with BMI above the average BMI (29 kg/m(2)) and presence of underlying co-morbidities showed significant increase in admission to ICU compared to patients below 29 kg/m(2) and underlying co-morbidities (21.7% Vs. 9.2%), ARDS development (21.7% Vs. 10.53%), need for ventilation (8.3% Vs. 1.3%), and mortality (10% Vs. 1.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggests that presence of underlying co-morbidities and high BMI work synergistically to affect the clinical outcomes of COVID-19.