212: A Comparison Between Obese and Non-Obese COVID-19 Patients in an Urban Hospital in New Jersey

INTRODUCTION: COVID-19 has within its short time since identification has caused major mortality and morbidity in our communities Obese patients seem to have poorer outcomes amongst COVID-19 patients, based on observational studies We conducted a study to analyze if there were any statistical differences in the outcomes and inflammatory markers between non-obese and obese COVID-19 inpatients METHODS: A single center, retrospective observational study obtaining data from all COVID-19 positive patients admitted to an urban tertiary care center in New Jersey between March 15th, 2020 to April 16th, 2020 Patients with BMI of 29 9 kg/m2 and below were classified as non-obese and all patients BMI of 30 kg/m2 and above, as obese The primary outcomes of death and discharge rates between the two groups, were compared using Chi-square test The secondary outcomes that were analyzed included admission to the ICU, the need for invasive mechanical ventilation and the incidence of shock We also looked at the commonly used markers including CRP, ferritin, IL-6, LDH and D-dimer RESULTS: Data from 900 patients were included analyzed, of which 547 (60 8%) patients were non-obese and 353 (39 2%) were obese There were no statistically significant differences noted in primary outcomes of death (41 4% (n=226) vs 40 8% (n=144), p= 0 9472) or in discharge from the hospital (58 6% (n=321) vs 59 2% (n=209), p=0 9559) between non obese and obese patients 38% of obese patients were admitted to the ICU vs 31 4% of non obese patients 33 1% of obese patients needed invasive mechanical ventilation over 25 4% non-obese patients More obese patients (25 2% vs 21 3%) went into shock However, the differences between the groups were not statistically significant When comparing inflammatory markers, CRP and LDH seemed significantly elevated in obese patients (mean CRP (205 6 vs 198 4, p=0 493) and mean LDH (643 5 vs 601 3, p=0 792)) However, they were not statistically significant and similarly other markers including IL-6, ferritin and D-dimer did not show any major differences as well CONCLUSIONS: Obese patients did not reveal a statistically significant difference in primary outcomes of death vs discharge and the need for ICU, mechanical ventilation or incidence of shock in comparison to non obese patients in our study