Four health issues cause 64% of Covid-19 hospitalizations, U.S. study finds

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A model developed by researchers at Tufts University in the United States with adults hospitalized for covid-19 has identified the most likely causes of hospitalization.

According to the study, the main factors that increase the risk of hospitalization are obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and heart failure.

The study was published on Thursday, February 25th, in the Journal of the American Heart Association, and is based on a mathematical simulation to estimate the proportion of covid-19 hospitalizations in the US that could have been prevented if these risk factors were not present.

Combined, the absence of these conditions in the US population would have reduced covid-19 hospitalizations by 64%. Obesity is the most relevant factor, with 30% of hospitalizations attributed to the risk element.

According to the Tufts model, which uses data from several other studies previously conducted on the disease, a 10% reduction in the prevalence of these risk factors would have reduced all coronavirus-related hospitalizations by 11%.

A total of 906,849 hospitalizations in the United States through November 2020 were analyzed. In epidemiological terms, the attributable proportion represents the percentage of Covid-19 hospitalizations that could have been prevented in the absence of the four conditions.

The model also took age into consideration. For instance, about 8% of covid-19 hospitalizations among adults under 50 were due to diabetes. That percentage jumps to 29% for those aged 65 and older. Obesity had a similarly negative impact on hospitalizations among all ages.

“Medical providers should educate patients who may be at risk for severe Covid-19 and consider promoting preventive lifestyle measures, such as improved dietary quality and physical activity, to improve overall cardiometabolic health,” said Meghan O’Hearn, one of the study’s authors.