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Obesity and COVID ‐19: A jigsaw puzzle with still missing pieces
Author(s) -
Michalakis Konstantinos,
Panagiotou Grigorios,
Ilias Ioannis,
PazaitouPanayiotou Kalliopi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
clinical obesity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1758-8111
pISSN - 1758-8103
DOI - 10.1111/cob.12420
Subject(s) - medicine , covid-19 , context (archaeology) , obesity , jigsaw , respiratory tract infections , intensive care medicine , bioinformatics , immunology , respiratory system , disease , infectious disease (medical specialty) , virology , outbreak , psychology , paleontology , pedagogy , biology
Summary Apart from posing various mechanical and medical issues compromising general health, obesity is a major factor for respiratory tract infections, due to specific inflammation and immunological compromise. The burden of obesity on morbidity and mortality of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection/COVID‐19 is considerable. Herein, we aimed to search the literature and present to the readers pathophysiologic pathways that may associate obesity and COVID‐19. We present potential mechanisms, which might partly explain why patients with obesity are more prone to suffer from respiratory infections in the context of COVID‐19. Better understanding of these pathways could eventually guide management strategies and therapies for COVID‐19 in the future.