The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology's editorial, Obesity: another ongoing pandemic,1 is appropriate during the current times to focus on the issue of obesity across the world. Obesity is a major health-care concern, even in middle-income and low-income countries, because of its association with chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and some cancers.
Research has revealed that obesity weakens the immune system, thus making the individual susceptible to infectious diseases. Obesity has emerged as a strong risk factor for severe disease during the COVID-19 pandemic; several studies have shown that individuals with COVID-19 and obesity have an increased risk of severe disease, hospitalisation, and death.2 The findings of a prospective community-based cohort study highlighted that a body-mass index greater than 23 kg/m2 is associated with increased risks of severe COVID-19 outcomes, particularly in patients younger than 40 years.3 This large population-based study corroborated evidence of obesity being a major risk factor associated with adverse outcomes in patients with COVID-19.2
The prevalence of overweight and obesity in India has doubled during the past two decades, leading to a notable increase in the burden of non-communicable diseases.4 Although India has made tremendous progress in providing primary and preventive health care to its citizens, it has not recognised obesity as a major health-care concern to be acted on. The severity with which the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit India, affecting millions of young people who haven not been immunised, suggests that obesity could be one of the most important determinants of adverse outcomes. The current wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused the loss of thousands of young lives, should be a wake-up call for the policy makers to address the issue of the pandemic of obesity in India and across the world.
Obesity is a modifiable risk factor of COVID-19 and one goal of public health bodies should be to achieve a healthy weight at the population level that might reduce adverse outcomes for non-communicable and infectious diseases, including COVID-19.
Acknowledgments
We declare no competing interests.
References
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