Body mass index and comorbidities are associated with the duration of COVID-19 symptoms in non-hospitalized patients

• Published in: Journal of international medical research Vol. 50; no. 9; p. 3000605221127520
• Main Authors: Šarčević, Zoran, Tepavčević, Andreja
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01-09-2022; Sage Publications Ltd; SAGE Publishing
• Subjects: Body mass index; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Hospitalization; Retrospective Clinical Research Report; symptom; comorbidity; Coronavirus disease 2019; risk factor; body mass index; obesity
• ISSN: 0300-0605; 1473-2300
• DOI: 10.1177/03000605221127520

Objective
Evidence indicates that people with a high body mass index (BMI) tend to develop more severe forms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In this study, we aimed to determine the association between the duration of COVID-19 symptoms and variables such as BMI, age, presence of comorbidities, and smoking in non-hospitalized patients.
Methods
In this observational cross-sectional analytical study, we analyzed the data of patients with COVID-19 but without severe manifestations. We conducted descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests, and multivariate quasi-Poisson regression in the analysis. The quasi-Poisson regression model was configured with the duration of COVID-19 symptoms as the response variable, and BMI and the presence of comorbidities as the explanatory variables.
Results
Among 302 non-hospitalized patients, we found a significant difference in COVID-19 symptom duration between the overweight group and the group with normal weight. Multivariate quasi-Poisson regression analysis showed that BMI and the presence of comorbidities were associated with the duration of COVID-19 symptoms. On the contrary, sex, age, and smoking status were not related to COVID-19 symptom duration.
Conclusions
BMI and comorbidities were associated with the duration of COVID-19 symptoms in non-hospitalized patients.