Covid 19 coronavirus: Death toll fuelled by obesity problems, say experts
4 Mar, 2021 12:42 AM
4 minutes to read
The WHO has said the correlation between obesity and coronavirus mortality rates is clear . Photo / Getty Images
The WHO has said the correlation between obesity and coronavirus mortality rates is clear . Photo / Getty Images
Daily Telegraph UK
By: Laura Donnelly
Covid death tolls have been fuelled by obesity, experts have said, as global research finds nine in 10 fatalities occurred in countries with a weight problem.
The study showed that New Zealand has been protected by an effective national response, despite our high rates of obesity.
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So far 518,500 Americans have died from Covid, the highest death toll of any nation and double the number of victims in second worst-hit Brazil. Almost 70% of adults in the US are obese.
The study by the World Obesity Federation examined almost 100 countries and found death rates were ten times higher in countries where more than half the population was overweight.
4 March 2021, 4:48 PM | Reuters | @SABCNews
Image: Pixabay Professor John Wilding said obesity should be recognised as a key COVID-19 health risk and taken into account in vaccination plans.
The majority of global COVID-19 deaths have been in countries where many people are obese, with coronavirus fatality rates 10 times higher in nations where at least 50% of adults are overweight, a global study found on Thursday.
The report, which described a “dramatic” correlation between countries’ COVID-19 death and obesity rates, found that 90% or 2.2 million of the 2.5 million deaths from the pandemic disease so far were in countries with high levels of obesity.
The study analysed the COVID-19 death figures from Johns Hopkins University in the United States and the World Health Organisation’s Global Health Observatory data on obesity.