Brazil has the second highest number of deaths due to COVID-19. Obesity has been associated with an important role in disease development and a worse prognosis. We aimed to explore epidemiological data from Brazil, discussing the potential relationships between obesity and COVID-19 severity in this country. We used a public database made available by the Ministry of Health of Brazil (182700 patients diagnosed with COVID-19). Descriptive statistics were used to characterize our database. Continuous data were expressed as median and analyzed by the nonparametric tests Mann–Whitney or one-sample Wilcoxon. The frequencies of categorical variables have been analyzed by chi-square tests of independence or goodness-of-fit. Among the number of deaths, 74% of patients were 60 years of age or older. Patients with obesity who died of COVID-19 were younger (59 years (IQR = 23)) than those without obesity (71 years (IQR = 20), P &lt; 0.001 , and η2 = 0.0424). Women with obesity who died of COVID-19 were older than men (55 years (IQR = 25) vs. 50 (IQR = 22), P &lt; 0.001 , and η2 = 0.0263). Furthermore, obesity increases the chances of needing intensive care unit (OR: 1.783, CI: 95%, and P &lt; 0.001), needing ventilatory support (OR: 1.537, CI: 95%, and P &lt; 0.001 and OR: 2.302, CI: 95%, and P &lt; 0.001 , for noninvasive and invasive, respectively), and death (OR: 1.411, CI: 95%, and P &lt; 0.001) of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Our analysis supports obesity as a significant risk factor for the development of more severe forms of COVID-19. The present study can direct a more effective prevention campaign and appropriate management of subjects with obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Endocrinology is the property of Hindawi Limited and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
COVID-19 and Obesity: An Epidemiologic Analysis of the Brazilian Data