Posted on 09/22/2021 10:50:28 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
A recent study shows that low BMI and malnutrition are risk factors for in-hospital mortality in geriatric COVID-19 patients.
These results are important as information on the groups with the highest mortality, i.e. the very old and frail patients, is underrepresented. For example, obesity is a risk factor in COVID-19 infection in younger adults but we instead found that low BMI and malnutrition increased the risk of in-hospital mortality in geriatric COVID-19 patients who were mostly older than 75 years.
During the first COVID-19 wave in the spring 2020 in Sweden, researchers reported that in-hospital mortality was 24% among older hospitalized geriatric patients. The risk of death was almost doubled for patients classified as frail according to the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) as compared to non-frail older patients. In these patients, acute kidney injury and multimorbidity were also strong risk factors for death.
The role of body composition and nutritional status in COVID-19 pathology has not been characterized well in hospitalized older adults (>65 years). Therefore, in our study, we analyzed the associations of body mass index, and nutritional status assessed using Mini Nutritional Assessment-Short Form (MNA-SF) with in-geriatric hospital mortality in older patients treated for COVID-19. Age range of the patients was from 65 to 105 years, and their median age was 83 years. Follow-up of survival was short, i.e., only the hospitalization period.
The major finding of this study was that indicators of undernutrition; i.e., underweight (BMI<18.5) and low MNA-SF scores (0–7), were related to short-term mortality in the COVID-19 patients. MNA-SF predicted death also in patients who were hospitalized for other causes. No evidence was found that obesity is a risk factor in COVID-19 infection in the older patients.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Interestingly, while obesity is a real health problem for younger people with COVID-19, it seemed to help these older persons get through the time of the infection.
I’ve always said I’d rather die fat and happy, than skinny and sad.
Finally — a covid report I can put my full weight behind!
OK, I could be wrong, but I think this is utter nonsense!
I think the best possible state for an older person to be in if they contract covid is to be of reasonable weight and well-nourished.
To be old, thin, frail and undernourished is obliviously a problem but it does not mean being well-fed, old and fat is good...
And I would think that being old, fat, and poorly-nourished would be about the worst condition.
Don't be poorly-nourished and don't be fat is my recommendation...seems pretty intuitive to me...
Being fat and old is NOT good.
I’ve had recent experience with the population of a couple of “independent living” and “assisted living” facilities in the Los Angeles area. There are some younger adults in assisted living (some high-functioning autists for example), but most are in the 70+ demographic.
It’s not a scientific sample, but there were some overweight, but not obese 70 year olds. There were no obese or overweight 80-90+ year olds. The obese are all dead by then. So if you’re dealing with people in these age categories, and based only on my own observations, almost everyone would be at a normal weight, or slightly underweight. That’s just the population you’re dealing with.
And all sorts of things can kill you when you’re 90. Tripping and falling down. The flu. Just running out of winters.
This report isn’t surprising, but not really enlightening, either.
ConservativeMind wrote: “Interestingly, while obesity is a real health problem for younger people with COVID-19, it seemed to help these older persons get through the time of the infection.”
I had weight loss surgery (gastric sleeve) in Feb 2020. I lost eighty pounds. I’ve added 12 back, almost all (9 pounds) muscle from hitting the gym five times a week. I’m 75.
At my last visit with the dietician at the weight loss center, she told she would like for me to increase my fat percentage, that 17.5% was too low for someone of my age.
absalom01 wrote: “It’s not a scientific sample, but there were some overweight, but not obese 70 year olds. There were no obese or overweight 80-90+ year olds. The obese are all dead by then. So if you’re dealing with people in these age categories, and based only on my own observations, almost everyone would be at a normal weight, or slightly underweight. That’s just the population you’re dealing with.”
True, but the question remains, how does one determine a ‘normal’ weight. BMI isn’t the best measure. It’s often used because it’s simple, easy to use, and inexpensive. However, BMI was developed in 1830, which causes one to ask if BMI is an accurate measurement of being healthy.
For example, a healthy person in good physical condition can easily be over 30 in BMI. A much better measure is percentage body fat. That is more difficult and expensive to measure.
Been working on being less overweight...and now this! But actually I will keep trying to be less overweight as I am in little danger of being underweight, and covid is far from the only health problem out there.
I would guess always being healthy and in good shape is desired.
Another useless study.
It has been known for many years that the aged are more at risk when under weight than over weight. But most people never hear that.
So this explains how I never got covid while not missing a day of work, rarely ever wearing a mask, travelling to Florida twice, Vegas once, numerous concerts and eating out every Saturday night with my wife and kids lololol
I BEAT ANOREXIA!!!
These people can never make up their minds.....and refuse to use data based on what they want to project not what actually is.
I know several people who had relatives die from covid.....over 75, .overweight and underlying issues developed thru their treatment.
A neighbor in my hometown got covid. Male 75, good health overall, within weeks he wasn’t expected to live....Buried this week. About a month from onset....now his 54 yr. old son has it.
“OK, I could be wrong, but I think this is utter nonsense!”
totally ... every other study has shown that obesity and Type 1 Diabetes are THE major covid-fatal comorbidities ... I’ve also noticed that almost everything posted here from medicalxpress is nonsense ...
All true.
BMI is a handy way to look at a large population, and it’s not really suitable when applied to an individual.
That said, in a population of sedentary elderly, who get far less exercise (including, especially, resistance) than one would hope, the body comp. is probably fairly consistent.
To clarify my observation: I personally have not observed any “very” elderly (which I would define as 80 and over) carrying visibly large amounts of adipose tissue around.
As a secondary observation, the single greatest quality of life issue that I’ve observed is atrophied muscle tissue, with the consequent fragility, loss of “balance” (really just a lack of requisite strength to regain one’s balance in time), and loss of mobility.
My speculation would be that a better study, with sufficient funding to measure body comp would find that the elderly who have maintained muscle mass and tone would fare better across all metrics, including against the ‘Rona.
I agree!
I can lose weight easily. Problem is when I get down to nearly where they say I should be my bones start hitting and rubbing together They also pinch the nerves in my back giving me lots of pain.
So I’ve found I am better off being 20 lb overweight with fat cells acting as shock absorbers for my back nerves.
I’ve never seen any really old fat people, except those that are at deaths door and screwed up three ways to Sunday. They don’t exist!
Actually, you are wrong, and the ease at which so many in nursing homes died so quickly went unnoticed by you, apparently. You see, their age group was responsible for the nearly 5% death rate we see in today's COVID-19 statistics, and in all of those who died in nursing homes, thanks to liberal politicians.
What was the common denominator for those nursing home deaths? It was not that they were “obese,” unless you can find the data to support your assertion. It was that they were undernourished and left vulnerable.
Have you ever been to a nursing home? Do you think they are loaded with obese elderly who can't take care of themselves? Really?
His study went in and found the obese elderly were actually the protected ones.
Get your head out and read.
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