Scientists from the University of Oxford found that COVID-19 vaccines have greatly reduced the number of cases of severe COVID-19 disease for everyone regardless of their body size.
They found vaccine effectiveness was similar for those with a higher BMI and of a healthy weight, but slightly lower in the underweight group, who were also the least likely to have been vaccinated.
The research is published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology and was conducted by Dr. Carmen Piernas et al.
Obesity was pinpointed as a risk factor for severe COVID-19 early in the pandemic. However, little was known until now about the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines for people with obesity.
In the study, the team searched anonymized health records from more than 12 million patients across 1,738 GP practices in England.
They found the vaccinated people had the fewer COVID-19 cases recorded.
In addition, people with very low and very high BMI were more likely to experience severe disease than vaccinated healthy-weight people.
The findings provide further evidence that COVID-19 vaccines save lives for people of all sizes.
The results provide reassurance to people with obesity that COVID-19 vaccines are equally as effective for them as for people with a lower BMI, and that vaccination substantially reduces their risk of severe illness if they are infected with COVID-19.
These data also highlight the need for targeted efforts to increase vaccine uptake in people with a low BMI, where uptake is currently lower than for people with a higher BMI.
The reduced effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines among people with a low BMI may reflect a reduced immune response as a consequence of frailty or other conditions associated with low body weight.
Further research is needed to explore the relationship between BMI and immune responses.
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