Obesity: One in 10 infectious disease deaths linked to condition, study shows

A 10th of deaths worldwide related to infection are potentially linked to obesity, a study of 540 000 people concludes.1The analysis of data from two Finnish cohorts and UK Biobank found that people with obesity were overall 70% more likely to be admitted to hospital or to die from infectious diseases than those of a healthy weight.The Lancet study looked at 925 bacterial, viral, parasitic, and fungal infectious diseases, including flu, covid-19, pneumonia, gastroenteritis, and urinary tract and respiratory tract infections.In the UK Biobank group of 479 498 people the mean age at baseline was 57 years, 54% were female, and 24% had obesity (BMI >30).Over a mean follow-up of 12.6 years a total of 81 945 severe infections were recorded, with an average age at onset of 67 years. The risk of people with obesity being admitted to hospital for a severe infection was 1.7 times that among people…