Association between increased body mass index and hospital admission for covid-19 in patients from a cardiovascular risk program

Abstract

Introduction: Up to now, overweight and obesity have been described as risk factors for becoming infected, requiring hospitalization, and dying from COVID-19. However, the literature is not always consistent with these results.
Objective: To evaluate the impact of BMI >25 kg/m² on hospital admission to manage COVID-19 disease in patients belonging to a cardiovascular risk program in the city of Cali, Colombia, during the year 2020.
Methods: Through an analytical observational study, the risk of requiring hospitalization due to SARS-CoV2 infection was evaluated in two cohorts of patients belonging to a cardiovascular risk program, including in the exposed group subjects with BMI >25 kg/m². We calculated relative risk to assess the association between BMI and hospitalization by COVID-19, and the Mantel-Haenszel homogeneity test was used to evaluate possible confounding variables.
Results: BMI >25 kg/m² was found as a protective factor for hospital admission (RR: 0.5; 95% CI: 0.30-0.80), without identifying modification or confusion in the outcome due to other clinical variables such as age >60 years, male sex, hypertension, DM2 or central obesity.
Conclusion: BMI >25 kg/m² was found as a protective factor for hospital admission among adult patients belonging to a cardiovascular risk program, without identifying any modification or confusion in the outcome due to other clinical variables such as age >60 years, male sex, hypertension, DM2 or central obesity.