Obesity as a risk factor for COVID-19 mortality in women and men in the UK Biobank: comparisons with influenza/pneumonia and coronary heart disease
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Peters, Sanne AE
MacMahon, Stephen
Woodward, Mark
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Obesity is associated with severe COVID-19 outcomes, yet, it unclear whether the risk of COVID-19 mortality associated with obesity is similar between the sexes. We used data from the UK Biobank to assess the risk of COVID-19 mortality associated with various anthropometric measures in women and men. To put these results in context, we also compared these estimates with those for mortality from influenza/pneumonia and coronary heart disease (CHD). The analyses included 502,493 individuals (54% women), of whom 410 (36% women) died of COVID-19, 549 (36% women) died of influenza/pneumonia, and 3355 (19% women) died of CHD. A higher BMI, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, and waist-to-height ratio were each associated with a greater risk of death from COVID-19, influenza/pneumonia, and CHD in both sexes, with the exception of the association between higher BMI and the risk of influenza/pneumonia death in men. A higher BMI was associated with a stronger risk of COVID-19 mortality in women than men; the women-to-men ratio of hazard ratios was 1.20 (95% confidence interval: 1.00; 1.43). This study demonstrates the role of obesity in COVID-19 mortality and shows that the relative effects of a higher BMI on COVID-19 mortality may be stronger in women than men. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Date Issued
2021-01
Date Acceptance
2020-09-20
Citation
Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism: a journal of pharmacology and therapeutics, 2021, 23 (1), pp.258-262
ISSN
1462-8902
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
258
End Page
262
Journal / Book Title
Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism: a journal of pharmacology and therapeutics
Volume
23
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2020 The Authors. Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32969132
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Endocrinology & Metabolism
body composition
cardiovascular disease
cohort study
body composition
cardiovascular disease
cohort study
Adult
Aged
Body Mass Index
COVID-19
Cohort Studies
Coronary Disease
Databases, Factual
Female
Humans
Influenza, Human
Male
Middle Aged
Obesity
Pandemics
Risk Factors
SARS-CoV-2
United Kingdom
Humans
Coronary Disease
Obesity
Body Mass Index
Risk Factors
Cohort Studies
Databases, Factual
Adult
Aged
Middle Aged
Female
Male
Influenza, Human
Pandemics
United Kingdom
COVID-19
SARS-CoV-2
Endocrinology & Metabolism
1103 Clinical Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Date Publish Online
2020-09-23