Abstract

Introduction: Obesity is a common, serious, and costly chronic disease. Having obesity puts people at risk for many other serious chronic diseases and increases the risk of severe illness from COVID-19. This study was designed to collect data on the association between obesity and severity of COVID-19.

Methods: This study is a systematic review. We searched for the keywords “coronavirus disease 2019” or “covid-19” or “2019 novel coronavirus” or “2019-ncov” or “novel coronavirus 2019 infection” or “2019-ncov infection” or “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2” or “sars-cov-2”) and “obesity” or “overweight” or “body mass index” or “BMI” or “visceral fat” or “excessive fat” or “abdominal fat” or “visceral adipose tissue” or “visceral adiposity” or “central adiposity” or “waist circumference” or “risk factors” or “factor” or “risk factor” or “clinical characteristics” or “clinical features”. The study included in this is research that focuses on the relationship between obesity and severity of COVID-19. The inclusion criteria of the research that will be included are studies that examine the relationship between obesity and severity of COVID-19, with adult subjects (not animal studies), research conducted within the last ten years and using primary data. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between obesity and severity of COVID-19.

Results: We found several relevant journals or articles related to the relationship between obesity and severity of COVID-19. The search results in the Pubmed journal database; we found one journal that discusses the relationship between obesity and severity of COVID-19. A Google scholar search shows five studies relevant to this study.

Conclusion: Obesity in many studies has been associated with the severity of COVID-19. There are several possible pathways that are thought to cause this severity. First, obesity is associated with altered inflammatory performance. Second, obesity is associated with other comorbidities.