For many diseases, overweight and obesity are risk factors.
But in a new study from the University of Gothenburg, researchers found that a higher BMI may be linked to higher survival rates in patients hospitalized for severe bacterial infections.
In the study, the team tested 2,196 adults receiving care for suspected severe bacterial infection. The researchers followed the patients in this study population over time, during and after their hospital stay.
The results show that the raised chances of survival were linked to a higher body mass index (BMI) in both the short and long term, at 28 days and one year after hospitalization respectively.
The differences in survival rates were clear. In the normal-weight group, 26% were dead within a year. The corresponding figures in the groups with higher BMI were 9%–17%.
Occasional surveys of limited patient groups have previously shown similar results.
The new findings clarify and confirm the “obesity survival paradox”: that overweight and obesity afford protection against severe bacterial infections.
The team says in the context of most other diseases, overweight and obesity are disadvantageous.
This applies to several types of cancer, heart disease and, in particular, COVID-19, in which a higher BMI is associated with higher mortality.
What this study does not show is how being overweight can benefit the patient with a bacterial infection, or whether it’s connected with functions in the immune system and how they’re regulated.
More knowledge is needed about how being overweight affects the immune system. One patient category it could be studied in is individuals undergoing bariatric surgery.
The researchers also say that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted vulnerable patient groups, and overweight people have been hit hard.
Maybe experience and handling of care for patients with severe bacterial infections can be used to improve the prognosis of COVID-19 and overweight.
Globally, obesity is increasing at an alarming rate.
The researchers think there is a need for more studies, at the population level, of how BMI affects treatment outcomes in various infectious diseases and what connections with the regulation of the immune system may exist.
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The study is published in PLOS ONE. One author of the study is Åsa Alsiö.
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