Obesity patients are more likely to develop severe forms of coronavirus. This is the conclusion drawn by researchers from the Lille University Hospital and the Civil Hospices of Lyon in a study published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet Diabet & Endocrinology.
Twice as many
Conducted on more than 450 patients hospitalized in Lille and Lyon, the study highlights the more numerous than expected presence of overweight patients in Covid-19 services and in intensive care.
“We observe that among hospitalized people, there are 25% of patients suffering from obesity whereas in the French adult population, there are 15% of obese”, indicates Dr Cyrielle Caussy, one of the authors of study and member of the Endocrinology-Diabetology department at the Lyon-Sud hospital.
“This is even more true in intensive care units where the proportion of people with obesity is 35%,” added the doctor, twice as many as in the general population.
Obesity patients with poorer lung capacity. They are more likely to get worse if they are infected. It is therefore important to strengthen protective measures against them. “You have to be careful, maintain barrier gestures,” insists Cyrielle Caussy.
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