CDC study finds roughly 78% of people hospitalized for Covid were overweight or obese

[demmiblue]

Source: CNBC

An overwhelming majority of people who have been hospitalized, needed a ventilator or died from Covid-19 have been overweight or obese, the CDC said in a new study Monday.

Among 148,494 adults who received a Covid-19 diagnosis during an emergency department or inpatient visit at 238 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. 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.

The agency found the risk for hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths was lowest among individuals with BMIs under 25. The risk of severe illness “sharply increased,” however, as BMIs rose, particularly among people 65 and older, the agency said.

Just over 42% of the U.S. population was considered obese in 2018, according to the agency’s most recent statistics.

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

[progree]

1. CDC's BMI calculator

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/english_bmi_calculator/bmi_calculator.html

Adult obesity statistics, CDC
https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

Unfortunately I can't find where they have percent of the adult population that is overweight (BMI 25-30). Obesity is BMI 30 and above.

Edited to add -- thanks to whopis01 in #17 below for the CDC link

Percent of adults aged 20 and over with obesity: 42.5% (2017-2018)
Percent of adults aged 20 and over with overweight, including obesity: 73.6% (2017-2018)

So that means 73.6% - 42.5% = 31.1% are overweight but not obese

[Native]

5. Per Healthline 36.5% are obese and 32.5% are overweight. This looks like a nothing burger.

[jimfields33]

6. That calculator is a tough cookie.

I remember they said George W. Bush was overweight. I must look obese even though I’m not. I just don’t think they take muscle mass into it.

[greenjar_01]

10. Would most people consider somebody 5'11" and 180 pounds to be overweight?

The BMI comes in at 25.1, overweight by 1 lb.

Five foot eleven inches tall and 180 pounds.

[groundloop]

14. When I was an absolute stud I was 5-11 and 185 and not an ounce of fat (that was long long ago)

I've looked at the BMI numbers and my opinion is that they're crazy. When I was in my 30s I was religious about running, biking, weight training, and played sports. No way in hell was I overweight.

[jimfields33]

15. Not at all.

I’m all for a healthier society, but I wish there was a more accurate measure.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. They don't-- I've seen body builders 5'8" weighing 220. But, that's extreme. I suspect most of us...

reasonably active will have a more common value of muscle mass.

But, I've never seen anything addressing the question. Must be out there, I've just missed it.

[Midnight Writer]

12. Yes, I recall that Evander Holyfield's BMI put him in the obese category. In his prime.

[PSPS]

18. I don't know about the calculator

It does provide one measurement but I remember being checked for BMI many years ago by a doctor for employment and his test also involved the use of a caliper on my skin behind my bicep.

[The King of Prussia]

2. Question

If 42% of the population is obese, and 50% of those hospitalised were obese - then how significant is that - compared to, for example, vitamin D deficiency?

[Native]

4. This means absolutely nothing since 2/3 of the U.S. is either overweight or obese

Per Healthline...

More than one-third of adults in the United States are obese. In the United States, 36.5 percent of adults are obese. Another 32.5 percent of American adults are overweight. In all, more than two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight or obese.Jun 2, 2020

[Javaman]

3. I guess me dropping 20+ pounds during this time, helped me.

go figure.

[Chakaconcarne]

7. Studies have found COVID needs cholesterol to help fuse to and get into the cell

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7263494/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7492798/

[Cicada]

8. 42% of Americans are "obese" and we gain weight as we age, usually

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. Overweight and obese people were hospitalized in a greater proportion to their numbers

than those of normal weight. In the early months of the pandemic nurses caring for those in hospital with Covid remarked over and over how the sickest ones were almost to a person obese.

For all that people like to complain the the Body Mass Index is flawed, it's not as flawed as you think. If your BMI is 36, you really and truly are obese. Don't try to point to body builders or football players who weigh a lot as why you are not obese.

My BMI had edged up into the obese category, and last summer I decided it was time I got it back below 25. Right now it's at 25.1, just barely into overweight. But I still want to take off about ten more pounds, which would make it 23.2.

One problem we all have is that so very many of us are overweight or obese, we've forgotten what a normal weight actually looks like. Look at photographs, especially of some kind of group scenes, from 50 or so years ago and you'll be astonished at how much less people weighed. High school yearbooks are a good source.

And somehow I suspect that the Vitamin D deficiency isn't as great as sometimes claimed, and for those who really are deficient, their risk of being hospitalized or dying of Covid isn't all that enhanced. So we all need to stop justifying how fat we really are.

[milestogo]

16. High school yearbooks are a terrible source.

Most obese people will tell you that they were not overweight in high school.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

32. Actually, they are a good source because in modern yearbooks

you will see an astonishing number of obese and overweight kids. 50 years ago, almost none.

Yes, many of us, and I'm certainly one, put on weight well after high school. But it's not just older adults. There's a horrifying epidemic of childhood obesity that's undeniable.

Also, several times I Googled the names of younger people who died of Covid, people in their 30s. Invariably the photos should someone very clearly overweight. Often by a lot.

[whopis01]

19. Not very significantly, according to the CDC.

From the article, 50% of those who were admitted were obese and 28% were overweight.

Also from the CDC, 43% of adults are obese and 31% are overweight. Those numbers track fairly close to each other.


https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm

[whopis01]

17. According to the CDC, 73.6% of adults are overweight or obese.

So the fact that 78% of Covid hospitalizations were people who are overweight or obese is not surprising, and perhaps not statistically significant.


https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm

[drray23]

20. stupid headline.

A vast majority of people are above a bmi of 25 especially older people who also tend to be more vulnerable to COVID. So, its pretty much a 100 % correlation. Not significant.

[greenjar_01]

22. Ayup

[bucolic_frolic]

21. Says to me

no surprise, there are incremental degrees of illnesses such as cardio issues that make one more susceptible to the more serious effects of COVID-19.

[NickB79]

23. Covid-19 death rates 10 times higher in countries where most adults are overweight, report finds

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/04/health/obesity-covid-death-rate-intl/index.html

The CDC study is just one of many to find that, to no one's surprise, carrying substantially more pounds can be deadly.

[GulfCoast66]

24. No sure this means much since most Americans fall into one of those categories.

That said, being overweight is not good. Since Covid I’ve been able to lose 27 lbs. 13% of my body weight. 30 more to go, but since it is a total diet change, not a diet I expect to be successful. When I was weighed at my physical last week even I was surprised at the number as I don’t weigh myself, ever. Only at the doctor.

I knew I was losing due to my clothes and belt.

If a non-disciplined glutton like me can do it most Americans can. If they are physically able. Plus I’m in my mid-fifties. Figured this is really my last realistic chance.

[riversedge]

25. I congratulate you.

[dsc]

26. Even without any discussion of the standard

this seems to be only slightly out of line. 50.2 - 42 = 8.2 making it 8.2/42 or about 1/5 more likely.

[birdographer]

27. This means nothing

Americans are overweight. People over 65-70 tend to be less active than they once were, and they put on weight. That is the group that was hospitalized and died due to existing conditions. So... seniors tend to be fat. More seniors died of covid than young people. Ergo, fat people die of covid. Thanks for clearing that up CNBC.

[mezame]

28. Silly Humans...

HFC...in everything...for years, and BigAgro still has its' way with us in parallel profit streams (looking at you meat industry). I'm shocked, shocked that anyone finds this surprising and then start victim blaming. The Obesity epidemic within a pandemic, further highlights the consequences of crappy policy, so-called bad habits (luv them sin taxes), and this residual re-activeness I see in this thread (and others), has been baked-in to our twitter/fb brains for half a decade - likely longer.

Moral of story: the healthier you are to begin with, the better chance you have of surviving covid, especially when you get vaccinated. I'm old enough to remember mandatory vaccinations for pre-schoolers (polio eradication days), and there was no nattering about religious liberties then. Nosirreebob! We had McCarthy on a different kind of witch-hunt back in the day.

Silly Humans. Trids are for Kicks!

[JenniferJuniper]

29. Some researchers connect this to poorer Vitamin D absorption

Like those with darker skin, people who are obese are much more likely to have inadequate vitamin D supply.

I found this pretty fascinating.

[Moostache]

30. Fat shaming should be received as badly as any other discriminating ideas...

Switch out "Obese" and "over-weight" with "African-American" and "Mixed Race" and see if the conclusions and rationales offered up or even the use of labels and tags for that matter still stand up...or do they stand out under different focus?

If only 20% of healthy or fit people die - yet they can infect (and apparently kill) others by the bucket full - what's the point? Healthy or not, fit or fat, COVID-19 is a public health emergency and global pandemic because of its transmissibility and the ease of infection from asymptomatic carriers.

Once someone can say that the disease cannot be spread by the beautiful, thin attractive people then the rest of us in the unwashed, unworthy 80% masses might need to adjust...until then, outcomes and force factors are as relevant as time of day for transmissions.

[marie999]

31. If you are muscular, don't bother using a BMI calculator, it will say you are obese.