The World Obesity Foundation released a new study on Thursday that found a link between a country’s COVID-19 mortality and the prevalence of obesity in its population.
The researchers found “high mortality rates only in countries where the prevalence of overweight exceeds about 50% of the adult population.”
“Globally, at the end of 2020, COVID-19 mortality rates were more than ten times higher in countries where the prevalence of overweight exceeds 50% of adults (weighted average of 66.8 deaths per 100,000 adults) compared to countries where the prevalence of overweight is less than 50% of adults (weighted average of 4.5 deaths per 100,000 adults), “wrote the World Obesity Foundation.
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The researchers claimed that a country’s wealth, reporting capacity, elderly population and other factors could not explain the link between COVID-19 and obesity.
The United States has one of the highest obesity rates in the world, rising from 30.5% to 42.4% of the population in the past 18 years, according to the CDC. The United States also has the ninth highest COVID-19 mortality rate in the world, with 158.43 deaths per 100,000 people, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The CDC notes that obesity can triple the risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19, as it causes impaired immune function and can decrease lung capacity.
There are some exceptions to the findings of the World Obesity Foundation, as countries like New Zealand, Australia and some Gulf states have relatively high obesity rates, but low COVID-19 mortality rates.
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“These numbers are clearly affected by national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and will change with the course of the pandemic and the extension of vaccination programs,” wrote the researchers.
But there is some evidence that vaccines currently launched around the world are less effective in obese people.
Researchers at the National Cancer Institute Regina Elena in Rome found in a study on the prepress server Medrxiv, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, that obese people produced notably less antibodies after being vaccinated than those with normal body weight.