Correlação entre a obesidade e o COVID-19: revisão integrativa

Abstract

Background: The outbreak of the disease COVID-19, caused by the new coronavirus SARSCoV-2, led the WHO (World Health Organization) to declare a new pandemic. Concomitant to this scenario, we find obesity that is characterized as a risk factor for COVID-19, with the virus using adipose tissue as a primary reservoir for the increase of the integral viral load. Aim: Therefore, this review aims to gather and synthesize information from the analyzed articles about the relationship between obesity and COVID-19 and highlight the importance of preventing COVID-19 in this group and the possible gaps found on the subject. Methods: Data collection was performed in PubMed in December 2020. In addition, articles in English, Spanish and Portuguese were included, limiting the search to clinical trials, meta-analyses and systematic reviews, during the period from 2020 to 2021, using the following keywords: “Obesity AND SARS-Cov-2 OR obesity AND Covid-19”. Results: Nineteen articles were included in this integrative review. Obese patients were observed in 11 articles, corresponding to approximately 31% of the total number of participants. Most of the patients were male and over 60 years old. Conclusion: Finally, it was observed that obesity is linked to the severe prognosis of COVID-19, as well as obese patients with SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus have a higher risk of being hospitalized, admitted to an intensive care units (ICU), requiring the use of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) and dying.