Does pre-existent physical inactivity have a role in the severity of COVID-19?
Qilin Yuan, Hua-Yao Huang, Xiao-Ling Chen, Rong-Hua Chen, Yixian Zhang, Xiao-Bin Pan, Jun-Nian Chen, Nan Liu, Houwei Du
Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease, doi:10.1177/17534666211025221
Background and Aims: Physical inactivity is considered an important lifestyle factor for overweight and cardiovascular disease. We aimed to investigate the association between preexistent physical inactivity and the risk of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods: We included 164 (61.8 ± 13.6 years) patients with COVID-19 who were admitted between 15 February and 14 March 2020 in this retrospective study. We evaluated the association between pre-existent physical inactivity and severe COVID-19 using a logistic regression model. Results: Of 164 eligible patients with COVID-19, 103 (62.8%) were reported to be physically inactive. Univariable logistic regression analysis showed that physical inactivity was associated with an increased risk of severe COVID-19 [unadjusted odds ratio (OR) 6.53, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.88-22.62]. In the multivariable regression analysis, physical inactivity remained significantly associated with an increased risk of severe COVID-19 (adjusted OR 4.12, 95% CI 1.12-15.14) after adjustment for age, sex, stroke, and overweight. Conclusion: Our data showed that pre-existent physical inactivity was associated with an increased risk of experiencing severe COVID-19. Our findings indicate that people should be encouraged to keep physically active to be at a lower risk of experiencing a severe illness when COVID-19 infection seems unpredicted. The reviews of this paper are available via the supplemental material section.
Conflict of interest statement The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
Funding The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Fujian Natural Science Foundation (2018J01309) and the Fujian Provincial Natural and Science Innovation Project (No. 2016B014). On behalf of the Fujian Medical Team Support Wuhan for COVID-19.
ORCID iD Qilin Yuan https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8941-0863
Supplemental material The reviews of this paper are available via the supplemental material section.
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