Obesity as a Risk Factor for COVID-19

The coronavirus pandemic has presented a wide range of challenges for healthcare systems in the world. COVID-19 has infected millions of people, with approximately 90% of the population showing mild or no symptoms. The disease has some risk factors that increase its severity, such as obesity, age, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, suppressed immune system, and pulmonary disorders. Obese individuals have higher chances of having symptomatic COVID-19 infection with excessive rates of hospitalization and ICU admission. Understanding the mechanisms defining the link between COVID-19 and obesity is necessary to develop preventive measures and therapeutic interventions for people with obesity. Patients with obesity suffer from a variety of nutritional deficiencies, which assist in development of low-grade chronic inflammation. This may result in inappropriate immune response against viral infections such as Covid-19. This review article proposes that changes in immune response, nutrition, and respiratory function, are some of the multiple mechanisms of obesity that increase the risks of developing COVID-19 complications. Patients should make changes to their lifestyles, focusing on nutrition modification, exercise, and calorie restriction as well as proper protection from the virus using latest scientific recommendations.