Research
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Obesity is an independent risk factor for severe COVID-19 outcomes, including hospitalization, ICU admission, and mortality, with risk increasing as BMI increases.
Obesity significantly increases your risk of severe illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19. Maintaining a healthy weight is a critical protective factor against severe viral infections.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Another meta-analysis demonstrated that individuals with obesity were at a higher risk of testing positive for COVID-19 (>46% higher), for hospitalization (113% higher), for intensive care unit admission (74% higher), and for mortality (48% increase in deaths).
Why this rating
Based on multiple meta-analyses and systematic reviews cited.
Source
Management of obesity in the times of climate change and COVID-19: an interdisciplinary expert consensus report
Ewa Płaczkiewicz‐Jankowska et al. · Polskie Archiwum Medycyny Wewnętrznej · 2022
DOI 10.20452/pamw.16216
clinical_guidelineCited 8×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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