Eliana Martínez, Rafael A Medina, Salesa Barja, Andrés Muñoz-Marcos, Erick Salinas, Estefany Poblete-Cárdenas, Leonardo I Almonacid, José Barriga, Diana Manzur, Natalia Ormazábal, Andrés Muñoz, Carolina Loza, Daniela Depaoli, Andrea Salinas, Macarena Jofré, Constanza Gómez-Canobbio, Gonzalo Valenzuela, Irini Nicolaides, Javiera Aravena, Sandra Bermudez, Pamela Céspedes, Loreto Godoy, Monserrat Gutiérrez, María José Avendaño, Eileen Serrano, Jorge Levican, Catalina Pardo-Roa, Tamara García-Salum, Rocío Rodríguez, Clara Schulze-Schiapacasse, Gonzalo Alarcón-Andrade
Journal: Pediatric obesity 2023;18(2):e12980
PMID: 36222077
BACKGROUND
Obesity increases the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 illness in adults. The role of obesity in short-term complications and post-acute sequelae in children is not well defined.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the relationship between obesity and short-term complications and post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection in hospitalized paediatric patients.
METHODS
An observational study was conducted in three tertiary hospitals, including paediatric hospitalized patients with a confirmatory SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR from March 2020 to December 2021. Obesity was defined according to WHO 2006 (0-2 years) and CDC 2000 (2-20 years) growth references. Short-term outcomes were intensive care unit admission, ventilatory support, superinfections, acute kidney injury, and mortality. Neurological, respiratory, and cardiological symptoms and/or delayed or long-term complications beyond 4 weeks from the onset of symptoms were considered as post-acute sequalae. Adjusted linear, logistic regression and generalized estimating equations models were performed.
RESULTS
A total of 216 individuals were included, and 67 (31.02%) of them had obesity. Obesity was associated with intensive care unit admission (aOR = 5.63, CI95% 2.90-10.94), oxygen requirement (aOR = 2.77, CI95% 1.36-5.63), non-invasive ventilatory support (aOR = 6.81, CI95% 2.11-22.04), overall superinfections (aOR = 3.02 CI95% 1.45-6.31), and suspected bacterial pneumonia (aOR = 3.00 CI95% 1.44-6.23). For post-acute sequalae, obesity was associated with dyspnea (aOR = 9.91 CI95% 1.92-51.10) and muscle weakness (aOR = 20.04 CI95% 2.50-160.65).
CONCLUSIONS
In paediatric hospitalized patients with COVID-19, severe short-term outcomes and post-acute sequelae are associated with obesity. Recognizing obesity as a key comorbidity is essential to develop targeted strategies for prevention of COVID-19 complications in children.
© 2022 World Obesity Federation.
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