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The coronavirus has a notoriously wide range of possible outcomes: While many patients survive unscathed with no detectable symptoms, others suffer from a wave of complications that ultimately lead to death. Each person’s price appears to be determined by how the disease is made worse by risk factors – a long list that includes obesity, according to the CDC. However, a surprising new study published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine find that obesity – once seen as an equal threat to men and women – can only serve as an independent risk factor in the case of men.
Although many have speculated that obesity contributes to COVID mortality due to its association with conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, breathing problems, etc., the study concluded that obese men – in especially middle-aged men under 60 – did worse than normal weigh individuals, even in the absence of these conditions.
To come to this conclusion, the team analyzed the health charts of nearly 7,000 members of the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Health System, recorded between mid-February and early May. Study participants had a median age of 49, racial diversity, and an average BMI of 30, nearly half of whom were considered clinically obese.
Notably, the researchers found that the level of risk actually increased with BMI for patients of both sexes. People considered “extremely obese”, defined as a BMI of 40 or more, were almost three times more likely to die from complications from coronavirus than those of normal weight, and those with a BMI of 45 were more than four times more likely to achieve a death result. But as researchers systematically took into account the comorbidities associated with more severe coronavirus cases, it became clear that it was only in men that obesity itself took its toll.
Although more research on the subject is needed, The New York Times reports that it is possible that this gender gap in obesity-related morbidity can be explained by the way fat is distributed differently in the bodies of men and women. Men tend to concentrate their weight around the abdomen and have higher levels of visceral fat, which is associated with higher morbidity rates in general.
Women, of course, are not totally off the hook. Having a higher BMI can still lead to the conditions we know to complicate the coronavirus, and maintaining a healthy weight is always associated with better results. As for men, they can add these findings to a growing list of reasons to be extremely careful during the pandemic. And for more on how men are disproportionately affected by COVID, here’s why the coronavirus kills more men than women, according to a new study.
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