London: COVID-19 vaccines greatly reduced the number of severe COVID-19 cases for everyone, regardless of their body size, according to a study of 9 million adults in England published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology on Friday. The vaccine’s effectiveness was similar for people with a high body mass index (BMI) and a healthy weight, but was slightly lower in the underweight group, who were also less likely to be vaccinated, the researchers said. He said that in another analysis of only vaccinated people, among the fewer COVID-19 cases reported, people with very low and very high BMIs were more likely to experience serious illness than people at a healthy weight. was more likely, he said.
“Our findings provide further evidence that COVID-19 vaccines save lives for people of all sizes,” said study lead author Carmen Pearnas, from the University of Oxford, UK. “Our results give reassurance to obese people that the COVID-19 vaccine is as effective for them as it is for those with low BMI, and that vaccination can substantially reduce the risk of serious disease.” if they are infected with COVID-19,” Piernas said. ,
The researchers said the data also highlights the need for targeted efforts to increase the vaccine in people with low BMI, where the uptake is currently lower compared to those with high BMI.
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They searched the anonymized health records of more than 12 million patients in England participating in QResearch – a secure database of health information available to verified researchers. Of these, 9,171,524 (9.1 lakh) patients who were above 18 years of age, had BMI data, and who were not previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 were included in the study.
According to the World Health Organization’s four definitions, people are grouped on the basis of their BMI from 18.5–24.9 kg per square meter (kg/m2) as a healthy weight, 18.5 as underweight and 25– 29.9 as overweight. was.
Characteristics such as age, gender, smoking status and social deprivation were also accounted for in the analysis. Of the more than 9 million people included in the study, 566,461 (over 5.6 lakh) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during the study as of December 8, 2020 (the date the first vaccine in the UK was given) to 17 till November 2021.
Of these, 32,808 were hospitalized and 14,389 people died. At the end of the study period, 23.3 percent of the healthy weight group, 32.6 percent of the underweight group, 16.8 percent of the overweight group and 14.2 percent of the obese group had had no doses of any COVID-19 vaccine. . ,
To understand the vaccine’s effectiveness, the researchers compared the risk of serious illness in vaccinated versus non-vaccinated people at least 14 days after the second dose. They found that vaccination offered higher protection in all BMI groups, but had little effect in those who were underweight.
Those vaccinated with low birth weight were almost half as likely to be hospitalized or die as compared to those without the same BMI. In comparison, those in the healthy and high BMI groups who were vaccinated were about 70 percent less likely to be hospitalized, the researchers said. They noted that even those with a healthy or high BMI were about two-thirds less likely to die two weeks after the second dose than their non-vaccinated counterparts.