Relationship Between BMI and Disease Severity in COVID-19 Patients

Background: Obesity and increased body mass index (BMI) are associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related complications and severity. They can exacerbate the cytokine storm and lead to severe symptoms or death in obese patients. Objectives: This cross-sectional descriptive study included patients with COVID-19 admitted to the Razi Hospital in Ahvaz, Iran, from January 2019 to December 2020. Methods: We evaluated the effect of BMI of patients admitted to the general ward and invasive unit care (ICU) on the length of hospitalization. Results: We included a total of 466 patients (male: 281 or 60.3% vs. female: 185 or 39.7%) with a mean age of 59.49 ± 14.5 years in the study. Also, 47 (10.1%) patients were admitted to the ICU, and 418 (89.7%) patients to the general ward. A higher BMI was associated with longer hospitalization (P 0.001). Patients with BMI in the range of 18.5 - 24.9 experienced a longer hospitalization (10-20 days) (P 0.001). BMI had no significant effect on ICU hospitalization (P = 0.36). Also, there was no significant difference between the two groups regarding the length of hospitalization (P = 0.49). Furthermore, non-diabetic patients were less likely to be admitted to the ICU (73.3% vs. 26.7%) (P 0.001). The number of discharged patients was higher in patients admitted to the general ward compared to those admitted to the ICU (93.8% vs. 63.8%) (P 0.001). Conclusions: According to our results, a higher BMI was a risk factor for COVID-19, especially in the early stage of infection.