Body Mass Index and Risk for COVID-19-Related Hospitalization, Intensive Care Unit Admission, Invasive Mechanical Ventilation, and Death - United States, March-December 2020

Abstract

Obesity* is a recognized risk factor for severe COVID-19 (1,2), possibly related to chronic inflammation that disrupts immune and thrombogenic responses to pathogens (3) as well as to impaired lung function from excess weight (4). Obesity is a common metabolic disease, affecting 42.4% of U.S. adults (5), and is a risk factor for other chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers.† The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices considers obesity to be a high-risk medical condition for COVID-19 vaccine prioritization (6). Using data from the Premier Healthcare Database Special COVID-19 Release (PHD-SR),§ CDC assessed the association between body mass index (BMI) and risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes (i.e., hospitalization, intensive care unit [ICU] or stepdown unit admission, invasive mechanical ventilation, and death). Among 148,494 adults who received a COVID-19 diagnosis during an emergency department (ED) or inpatient visit at 238 U.S. hospitals during March-December 2020, 28.3% had overweight and 50.8% had obesity. Overweight and obesity were risk factors for invasive mechanical ventilation, and obesity was a risk factor for hospitalization and death, particularly among adults aged <65 years. Risks for hospitalization, ICU admission, and death were lowest among patients with BMIs of 24.2 kg/m2, 25.9 kg/m2, and 23.7 kg/m2, respectively, and then increased sharply with higher BMIs. Risk for invasive mechanical ventilation increased over the full range of BMIs, from 15 kg/m2 to 60 kg/m2. As clinicians develop care plans for COVID-19 patients, they should consider the risk for severe outcomes in patients with higher BMIs, especially for those with severe obesity. These findings highlight the clinical and public health implications of higher BMIs, including the need for intensive COVID-19 illness management as obesity severity increases, promotion of COVID-19 prevention strategies including continued vaccine prioritization (6) and masking, and policies to ensure community access to nutrition and physical activities that promote and support a healthy BMI.

Conflict of interest statement

All authors have completed and submitted the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. John House reports employment with Premier, Inc. No other potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Figures

FIGURE 1

Association between body mass index (BMI) and severe COVID-19–associated illness among adults aged ≥18 years, by age group — Premier Healthcare Special COVID-19 Release (PHD-SR), United States, March–December 2020 Abbreviations: aRR = adjusted risk ratio; ICU = intensive care or stepdown unit; IMV = invasive mechanical ventilation. * Illness requiring hospitalization, ICU admission, or IMV or resulting in death. † Data in PHD-SR, formerly known as the PHD COVID-19 Database, are released every 2 weeks; release date March 2, 2021, access date March 3, 2021. http://offers.premierinc.com/rs/381-NBB-525/images/PHD_COVID-19_White_Paper.pdf § Each panel contains the results of a single logit model, adjusted for BMI category, age, sex, race/ethnicity, payer type, hospital urbanicity, hospital U.S. Census region, and admission month as control variables. Age group (18–39 [reference], 40–49, 50–64, 65–74, and ≥75 yrs) was used as a control variable in the models that included patients of all ages (first four panels), whereas continuous age as cubic polynomial was used as a control variable in models stratified by age (<65 and ≥65 yrs). Risk for hospitalization was estimated in the full sample; risk for ICU admission, IMV, and death were estimated in the hospitalized sample. Patients who died without requiring ICU admission or IMV were excluded from the sample when estimating the model with outcome of ICU admission or IMV, respectively.

FIGURE 2

Estimated risk for severe COVID-19–associated illness among adults aged ≥18 years, by body mass index (BMI) and age group — Premier Healthcare Special COVID-19 Release (PHD-SR), United States, March–December, 2020 Abbreviations: ICU = intensive care or stepdown unit; IMV = invasive mechanical ventilation. * Illness requiring hospitalization, ICU admission, or IMV or resulting in death. † Data in PHD-SR, formerly known as the PHD COVID-19 Database, are released every 2 weeks; release date March 2, 2021, access date March 3, 2021. http://offers.premierinc.com/rs/381-NBB-525/images/PHD_ COVID-19_White_Paper.pdf § Each panel contains the results of a single logit model, adjusted for BMI (as fractional polynomials), age group (18–39 [reference], 40–49, 50–64, 65–74, and ≥75 yrs), sex, race/ethnicity, payer type, hospital urbanicity, hospital U.S. Census region, and admission month as control variables. Confidence intervals are shown by error bars. The bottom panels also include interactions between BMI (as fractional polynomials) and age group. Risk for hospitalization was estimated in the full sample; risk for ICU admission, IMV, and death were estimated in the hospitalized sample. Patients who died without requiring ICU admission or IMV were excluded from the sample when estimating the model with outcome of ICU admission or IMV, respectively. The best fitting models included the following fractional polynomials of BMI: BMI-2 and BMI-0.5 for hospitalization outcome, BMI0.5 and BMI0.5ln(BMI) for ICU admission outcome, BMI2 and BMI2ln(BMI) for IMV outcome, and BMI-0.5 and ln(BMI) for death outcome.