Metabolic Healthy Obesity, Vitamin D Status, and Risk of COVID-19
Shu Li, Zhi Cao, Hongxi Yang, Yuan Zhang, Fusheng Xu, Dr Yaogang Wang
Aging and disease, doi:10.14336/ad.2020.1108
Aging and obesity-related conditions seem to worsen the effect of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study assessed the possible roles of metabolic/obesity phenotypes and vitamin D status in increasing the greater severity of COVID-19. We studied 353,299 UK Biobank participants from England with a mean age of 67.7 years. Metabolic/obesity phenotypes were defined as a combination of metabolic components (hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes) and obesity. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to test whether the addition of metabolic disorders and vitamin D insufficiency increased obesity associations with COVID-19 hospitalization, confirmed COVID-19, and severe COVID-19. Metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUHO) represented 12.3% of the total analytic samples, and 21.5%, 18.5%, and 19.8% of the included subpopulations with COVID-19 hospitalization, confirmed COVID-19, and severe COVID-19, respectively. Vitamin D insufficiency phenotypes represented 53.5% of the total analytic samples, and 59.5%, 61.7%, and 61.5% of the included subpopulations with COVID-19 hospitalization, confirmed COVID-19, and severe COVID-19, respectively. In multivariate logistic regression, MUHO and vitamin D insufficiency and their combination were significantly associated with COVID-19 illness severity (odds ratio [OR] for COVID-19 hospitalization = 2.33, 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.02-2.70; OR for confirmed COVID-19 = 2.06, 95% CI, 1.58-2.70; OR for severe COVID-19 = 2.06, 95% CI, 1.47-2.87). Elderly men were prone to have a higher risk of COVID-19 than women. Our findings showed that MUHO and vitamin D insufficiency are associated with a significantly increased risk of COVID-19 severity, especially for adults 65 years and older. Susceptible individuals should be aware of their conditions and avoid contact with new coronavirus.
Conflicts of interest The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Supplementary Materials The Supplemenantry data can be found online at: www.aginganddisease.org/EN/10.14336/AD.2020.1108.
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