Obesity and lipid metabolism disorders determine the risk for development of long COVID syndrome: a cross-sectional study from..., 2022, Loosen et al

Full title: Obesity and lipid metabolism disorders determine the risk for development of long COVID syndrome: a cross-sectional study from 50,402 COVID-19 patients

Abstract

Purpose
Metabolic disorders have been identified as major risk factors for severe acute courses of COVID-19. With decreasing numbers of infections in many countries, the long COVID syndrome (LCS) represents the next major challenge in pandemic management, warranting the precise definition of risk factors for LCS development.

Methods
We identified 50,402 COVID-19 patients in the Disease Analyzer database (IQVIA) featuring data from 1056 general practices in Germany. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for the development of LCS.

Results
Of the 50,402 COVID-19 patients included into this analysis, 1,708 (3.4%) were diagnosed with LCS. In a multivariate regression analysis, we identified lipid metabolism disorders (OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.28–1.65, p < 0.001) and obesity (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.08–1.44, p = 0.003) as strong risk factors for the development of LCS. Besides these metabolic factors, patients’ age between 46 and 60 years (compared to age ≤ 30, (OR 1.81 95% CI 1.54–2.13, p < 0.001), female sex (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.20–1.47, p < 0.001) as well as pre-existing asthma (OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.39–2.00, p < 0.001) and depression (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.09–1.47, p = < 0.002) in women, and cancer (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.09–1.95, p = < 0.012) in men were associated with an increased likelihood of developing LCS.

Conclusion
Lipid metabolism disorders and obesity represent age-independent risk factors for the development of LCS, suggesting that metabolic alterations determine the risk for unfavorable disease courses along all phases of COVID-19.

Open access, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s15010-022-01784-0

 

so all the thin people with m e were not at risk . i think their conclusion is poor

 

Wasn't there some suggestion a very few years back that PwME have some issue with fat metabolism? From OMF?

 

This is yet another study which shows that any link between ME/CFS and the spectrum of illness covered by "Long Covid Syndrome" is tenuous or otherwise is somewhat discrete within the LCS affected population.

The link with obesity is unsurprising as that is a known predisposition for more serious illness following COVID 19 infection, and LCS is being recorded at higher rates among those who sought health care for acute COVID 19 infection - this may be an artefact of data gathering which will only become clear over time, although given the range of pathology captured by the LCS designation, it does seem likely that being acutely ill with COVID 19 is associated with long term consequences.

Known lipid storage diseases are all genetic, significantly disabling and life limiting:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2003.tb00215.x

"Abstract
Over the past 40 years there has been remarkable development in our understanding of the pathophysiology of lysosomal storage disorders. This review describes the research carried out on the sphingolipid storage disorders from the first demonstration of the underlying metabolic abnormality in Gaucher disease to the development of enzyme replacement therapy for Gaucher and Fabry diseases. Initial developments in gene therapy are also described.

Conclusion: The introduction of enzyme replacement therapy has provided a lifeline for patients with Gaucher or Fabry disease. It is anticipated that future developments, including gene therapy, will provide additional therapeutic options."

Full article at scihub: https://sci-hub.se/10.1080/08035320310000401

A lipid storage problem in ME/CFS is an interesting proposition, I may have missed it but I can't see anything in this study that would have anything relevant to that. The author's summary seems pretty clear about what they think the study says:

"In summary, since obesity and lipid disorders represent modifiable risk factors, our data suggest that lifestyle and metabolic interventions could be part of future strategies for pandemic preparedness. Moreover, our data clearly support the fact that patients with metabolic diseases should be considered as risk patients in all phases of COVID-19, and therefore, need a close clinical supervision even after overcoming the acute phase of COVID-19."