Obesity as a risk factor for Covid- 19 mortality: an overview of published meta-analyses

Abstract

Obesity and Covid-19 affected the world in the form of pandemics. With this brief review was investigated whether obesity is a risk factor for Covid-19 mortality. The search procedure was performed in the PubMed database with restrictions on meta-analysis (MAs), systematic reviews (SRs), and papers published in the English language. A total of 326 papers were obtained, 11 of which were eligible for analysis according to the aim of this study. The reported odds ratio (OR) range was 1.05-3.76, and the reported hazard ratio (HR) was 2.1, but significant heterogeneity was evidenced by I2 values up to 89.1%. Eight MAs and SRs reported an association between obesity and an increased risk of Covid-19 mortality or severe disease, while two studies found no association. One study reported that the risk of Covid-19 mortality is related to morbid obesity with body mass index (BMI)≥40 kg/m2. Good quality MAs and SRs requires good quality of the included studies, which was a great challenge during the Covid- 19 pandemic.