Coronavirus more likely to kill men and the obese, study says
- British researchers link being male or obese to lower Covid-19 survival rates in largest study conducted outside China
- Obese people could be at greater risk because they have reduced lung function and their immune systems may overreact
Men and obese people are less likely to survive Covid-19, a study has found.
The study found that “being male or obese is a significant factor associated with death in UK hospitals, a feature not seen in China,” where 6.6 per cent of adults were obese in 2016, compared with 29 per cent in England in 2017.
“Those who have poor outcomes are more often elderly, male and obese,” according to the paper that has yet to be peer-reviewed. “The enhanced severity in male patients is seen across all ages.
“Although age-adjusted mortality rates are high in the elderly, most of these patients were admitted to hospital with symptoms of Covid-19 and would not have died otherwise,” according to the preprint published on medRxiv.org on Tuesday.
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Researchers believe that obese people are dying more than other groups because they have reduced lung function and possibly more inflammation in adipose tissue, the fatty tissue found under the skin and around internal organs.
This might then contribute to an enhanced “cytokine storm”, a potentially life-threatening overreaction by the body’s immune system.
The disease has infected more than 170,000 people in the UK, and killed almost 27,000.
The study led by professors from Edinburgh University, Liverpool University and Imperial College London is based on data obtained from nearly 17,000 Covid-19 patients in 166 UK hospitals between February 6 and April 18.
The group represents almost 15 per cent of all people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in the UK and 28 per cent of hospital admissions for the disease.
More than half of the participants had comorbidities such as chronic cardiac disease, diabetes and non-asthmatic chronic pulmonary disease, according to the preprint.
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One-third of the patients have died, while 17 per cent continued to receive care at date of reporting and half of them were discharged.
The study is also the largest of its kind outside China, the initial centre of the pandemic, providing “the largest detailed description of Covid-19 in Europe.”
“Our research provides an exceptional picture of the illness and risk factors and will underpin a huge range of research,” said Peter Openshaw, professor of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College London.
