Experts Say COVID-19 Much More Deadly For Obese Patients

The Annals of Internal Medicine suggest more than half of morbidly obese patients who get COVID-19 will either die or require life-saving medical care.

Dr. Chris Harris with OU Medicine said obesity increases your risk of severe COVID-19 because of other ailments and effects obesity can have on your body.

"Obesity increases your likelihood of having other diseases, like sleep apnea, heart failure, coronary artery disease,” Dr. Harris said.

Dr. Harris said COVID-19 grabs onto fat tissue. The more fat you have, the greater chance the virus can anchor to your body and multiply at a rapid rate.

"Obesity increases inflammation in the body and increased abdominal obesity makes it hard for you to breathe for your diaphragm, put more pressure on that muscle,” Dr. Harris said.

Dr. Harris said more than 30 percent of our state is obese and roughly 10 percent is morbidly obese. The Oklahoma triad, as Dr. Harris described, is when a patient has all three of these symptoms of obesity: high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol.

The Obesity Review reports more than 70 percent of severely obese patients will need ICU care.

Intubating obese patients can also be very challenging, Dr. Harris said, and requires several nurses at one time.

“Getting them off of the breathing tube because they have so much fat tissue on their chest and abdomen, it makes it that much harder for them to breathe,” Dr. Harris said.

Other studies suggest obese patients can have more virus in their body and leaving them with COVID-19 for longer. The survival rate is worse in obese men who are under the age of 60.

Dr. Harris said the best things those with obesity can do is most importantly avoid exposure, start a healthy diet and get exercising to reduce some inflammation.