78% of Covid hospitalizations were of people overweight

[Laura PourMeADrink]

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/covid-cdc-study-finds-roughly-78percent-of-people-hospitalized-were-overweight-or-obese.html

Excerpts:

About 78% of people who have been hospitalized, needed a ventilator or died from Covid-19 have been overweight or obese, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a new study Monday.

Just over 42% of the U.S. population was considered obese in 2018, according to the agency’s most recent statistics. Overweight is defined as having a body mass index of 25 or more, while obesity is defined as having a BMI of 30 or more.

“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,” the CDC wrote.

[malaise]

1. This morning on our usual walk we ran into a lady we hadn't seen in nearly a year

Last edited Mon Mar 8, 2021, 08:13 PM - Edit history (1)

She went for pre tests for eye surgery and discovered that she had Covid. She has been walking on the same track as the rest of us for well over 20 years. She had very few symptoms and went into quarantine for weeks - then had surgery and stayed out of sight for ages. She was never hospitalized for Covid and she's early 70s.

She said her doctors told her she was rewarded for decades of regular exercise.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

4. Interesting. I am still waiting to find out it's good to lay on couch and watch tv :)

[malaise]

5. ROFL

YOu know you can exercise on the couch - right!

[Hortensis]

14. Lol. First step to finding out is to give it up. That's how

the universe has always rolled for me.

[greenjar_01]

2. Dupe and Discussed at Length

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2708460

[Laura PourMeADrink]

3. Thanks will delete

[superpatriotman]

6. Don't delete!

This should be discussed here in GD

[genxlib]

7. Tis story bugs me

It is written very poorly and compares apples and oranges to reach a shocking conclusion. In the process, they are either misinterpreting or deliberately skewing the stats.

The study says 78% of Covid patients are overweight or obese. The article says 42% of the US population is obese.

Putting these two numbers side by side makes it look like the obese are overrepresented in the patient group by almost double (78% versus 42%). If you read more closely, the actual percentage of patients who are obese is actually only 50.2%. So the overrepresentation is much more limited than they imply (50% versus 42%).

They don't tell you that about 74 percent of adults in the United States are overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So the difference is actually narrower than that. (78% versus 74%)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/most-american-adults-are-overweight/2020/12/18/faefa834-408d-11eb-9453-fc36ba051781_story.html

No doubt that obesity is a risk factor for Covid but this article is just a mess from a statistical standpoint. Heavy people deal with enough shit these days without getting handed this kind of blame.

[Ms. Toad]

9. Thank you.

I didn't have the data - but I knew the stats being cited were misleading.

In addition to comparing apples to oranges, it excludes other hdalth issues that might be more prevalent in people who are obese - and might actually be responsible for the statistical correlation.

For example, even though I have diabetes and am obese at least part of the time - my cholesterol (and related health issues) are within the low risk range for heart attacks (even taking into account the presumption that diabetes = heart attack waiting to happen).

So even comparing apples to apples, weight - itself - may not be the factor that medical biases suggest it is.

[genxlib]

12. There is also another statistical factor at play

We tend to get heavier as we age.

Covid affects older people at a higher rate.

It is possible that the difference in statistics is just a matter of older being heavier. Or vice-versa. Maybe older is more vulnerable because we are generally heavier and less healthy.

There are lots of potential interrelated risk factors. I am not sure this article helped much to identify them

[Ms. Toad]

16. Agreed.

And - the tendency of the medical profession is to blame everything on weight.

[Happy Hoosier]

17. Exactly so. NT

[Laura PourMeADrink]

10. But isn't the most important takeaway that 78% of those hospitalized

Were either overweight or obese?

U.S. hospitals from March to December, 71,491 were hospitalized. Of those who were admitted, 27.8% were overweight and 50.2% were obese, according to the CDC report

.

[genxlib]

11. It would seem so

Except that 74% of the population is overweight.

Which means the overweight are only marginally more represented in the covid group than they are in the general public.

No doubt this is a problem but it is a general society problem and not just a covid problem.

Bear in mind that this is measured by BMI. There are a lot of people who say that BMI is not that great of an indicator and misclassifies some people who are just muscular or dense. I confess that I have been overweight and obese for much of my life but I was very fit in my twenties. Yet at my leanest, I would still have qualified as overweight even though I was very fit.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

15. So the points are that this stat is not surprising at all because

The general public looks like this.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. More than two-thirds to three-quarters of the U.S. population is overweight/obese, depending on what

stats you look at.

[Hekate]

13. Probably because 78% of Americans are overweight

Sad but true

[JI7]

18. Yes, this country is obese and Michelle Obama tried to do something

about it and the right wing lashed out against that.

She just tried to encourage people to eat more healthy and exercise and the right wing claimed they were being oppressed and acted like she was taking something away from them.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

19. Perhaps the fact that most of us are overweight or obese is

exactly why so many people have died in this country.