Since December 2019, over 7 million deaths have been reported due to the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Recent publications reported risk factors and comorbidities that favor these severe outcomes, being obesity one of them. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between obesity, infection risk, and disease severity, focusing on hospital admission. The present study consists of an observational, analytical, retrospective case-control study to evaluate whether obesity influences the risk of getting COVID-19 and the likelihood of developing severe disease.

Dependent variables studied were confirmed COVID-19 infection and severe prognosis. The independent variable was obesity, along with sociodemographic variables.

This study did not show an indicate association between obesity and a different risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2. However, the results suggest a possible relationship between obesity and a risk factor for developing severe disease once infected. Due to the low number of hospitalized cases, no statistically significant differences were found.