Obesity and Severity Outcomes in COVID-19 Children: A Systematic Review & Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Objective: This study has an aim to analyze the association between pediatric obesity with outcomes of COVID-19 in terms of hospital and ICU admission as well as mortality, considering the are limited studies available that discuss the issue. Methods: This is a meta-analysis whose investigation was conducted between June to July. Published papers were obtained from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, and Google Scholar. This study utilized the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) checklist for protocol assurance. Keywords applied in the systematic search include [“COVID-19”] and [“Children"] and [“Obesity"] or [“Obese"]. Results: The analysis in this study shows that obese children are at higher risk for ICU admission (OR: 3.92 [95%CI: 3.49-4.40], p = <0.00001) and mortality (OR: 4.29 [95%CI: 3.76-4.89], p = <0.00001). The odds for obese children to be hospitalized for COVID-19 were found to be (OR: 1.72 [95%CI: 0.83-3.60], p = 0.15) but was not significantly correlated. Conclusion: Our data indicate that paediatric patients are more likely to be admitted for ICU and have a higher risk of mortality when they are obese.