Effect of obesity on COVID-19 disease severity in children

Abstract

Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused many injuries and deaths worldwide. Obesity is reported to be an important risk factor for severe COVID-19, although the underlying mechanism is not fully understood. The present study aimed to determine whether obesity or being overweight is associated with the clinical course and severity of COVID-19 in children.

Methodology: In this retrospective study, pediatric patients under the age of 18 years, who applied to our hospital between June 2021 and August 2021, and tested positive with the COVID-19 reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction test were included. Age, gender, symptoms at admission, body weight, height, chest radiographs, hemograms, C-reactive protein and other laboratory findings, and days of hospitalization of the pediatric patients were obtained from the hospital automation system. All data were statistically analyzed and compared between underweight, normal, overweight, and obese groups; categorized according to body mass index (BMI).

Results: The study included 116 patients. The results showed that the incidence of symptoms was higher in overweight and obese children compared to other groups (p < 0.05), while the rate of lung involvement was significantly higher in obese patients compared to other groups (p < 0.05). The optimum cut-off point for BMI percentile values in terms of lung involvement was determined to be > 91.

Conclusions: The results of this study revealed that obese children show more symptoms of COVID-19 disease than normal-weight children. In addition, these children have more frequent lung involvement and therefore have more severe disease.