key: cord-1028676-rzy6vwuq
authors: Finer, Nick; Garnett, Sarah P.; Bruun, Jens M.
title: COVID‐19 and obesity
date: 2020-04-27
journal: Clin Obes
DOI: 10.1111/cob.12365
sha: 6b693300a7b552fd94d883508d8d5fdf275c83b4
doc_id: 1028676
cord_uid: rzy6vwuq

nan

It is clear from this evidence that those with obesity, and particularly its complications, such as diabetes and hypertension, may be more liable to develop a more serious illness, requiring hospital admission and probably invasive ventilation. 4 Additionally the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) in the United Kingdom reported a disproportionate number of those critically ill with COVID-19 were from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds -nearly a third compared to the 13% BAME in the general population. 5 Whether this is driven by the greater prevalence of and risks from obesity (driving diabetes and hypertension) in such populations is not known. Nor do we yet have data on outcomes for those with obesity and less serious COVID-19 disease in terms of progression to more serious severity requiring critical care or mortality. Such data will be important to fully understand the mortality risk to those with obesity, particularly with the knowledge that critical care survival may be higher in those with modest degrees of obesity. 6 However, perhaps a more pressing concern is that highlighted in the recent editorial in Obesity, namely, that appropriate resources for those with (severe) obesity are often inadequate in hospitals 7 ; for example, the access to imaging may be limited by the lack of machines able to accommodate patients with severe obesity. 8 If the more complex lifting and handling demands of those with obesity 9 are also factored in, there is a real risk that people with severe obesity may be seriously disadvantaged regarding health care. The pandemic may expose the failure of healthcare systems and providers to meet the needs of our changing population.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on submission processing and journal production has resulted in a smaller than usual edition of Clinical Obesity. 

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