Obesity is a big risk factor for severe infections requiring hospitalization This means weight loss could cut the risk, especially for folks with diabetes Infections included pneumonia, flu and UTIs MONDAY, Sept. 9, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Losing weight can help a person with obesity -- especially those with diabetes -- fend off serious infections, new data shows. It's an important finding, since "up to one in three hospitalizations in people with diabetes are for infections and people with diabetes are twice as likely to be hospitalized with infections than the general population.
They are also at high risk of readmission," said study co-lead author Rhian Hopkins . She's at the University of Exeter Medical School in the U.K.
Hopkins presented the research Saturday in Madrid at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). The new study used data from the ongoing UK Biobank, a database that includes health info on almost 500,000 Britons. According to the data, about 64,000 had been hospitalized for a bacterial infection (such as a urinary tract infection or pneumonia); almost 15,000 had been hospitalized with a viral infection (such as the flu), and about 408,000 had never been hospitalized for infection.
Obesity seemed linked to a higher risk for severe infection, the team found. Every 5-point increase in BMI -- for example, from a BMI of 30 (the threshold for obesity) to 35 -- incurred a 30% rise in the risk of a serious bacterial infecti.