Also Read: The big challenge right now is…: WHO on what could hinder COVID endgame Previous research showed that people with diabetes and obesity are more likely to become severely ill and die if they catch COVID-19, but are no more likely to contract it.
However, the underlying mechanisms, and their role in prolonged post-COVID-19 symptoms (long COVID), remains unclear. To find out more, researchers looked for associations between a range of clinical characteristics measured before the pandemic--HbA1c (average blood sugar level), self-reported or medication-based diabetes, body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)--and self-reported COVID-19 infection and long COVID in nine ongoing UK cohort studies. Also Read: These two Covid-19 therapies are not recommended by WHO The analyses included the most recent measurements (taken between 2002 and 2019) of HbA1c, weight, height, waist and hip circumference from each study as well as information from questionnaires on health and lifestyle.
All eligible participants (maximum 31,252, aged 19-75 years old, 57% female) had data on previous measurements and completed at least one questionnaire during the COVID-19 pandemic (May 2020 to September 2021) covering questions on COVID-19 and, where possible, questions on the length of ongoing COVID-19-related symptoms.
Participants reported having COVID-19 based on a positive test or strong suspicion. Long COVID was defined as symptoms that went on or affected functioning for longer than four weeks post-infection and were compared to those reporting symptoms for less than four weeks.