Being immobile increases your risk of dying from COVID-19 more than being a smoker or having cancer – news

According to the study, people who had settled before at least two years before the outbreak of the epidemic were more likely to be admitted to hospital, need intensive care and die from the new Corona virus, compared to patients who kept physical activity.

Among the risk factors for a severe form of the disease, the researchers said, only advanced age and a history of organ transplantation exceeds a sedentary lifestyle. They stressed that compared to other factors, such as smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and cancer, “physical inactivity was the most important risk factor in all outcomes.”

The risk factors most associated with COVID-19 are aging, male sex, and some pre-existing diseases, such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, but a sedentary lifestyle has not yet been studied. To analyze its potential impact on infection severity, hospitalization, the need for resuscitation and death, researchers compared the development of 48,440 adults with COVID-19 between January and October 2020, in the United States.

The average age of the injured was 47 years, 62% of them were women. On average, his body mass index (BMI) of 31 was just above his obesity threshold. About half of them do not suffer from previous diseases, such as diabetes, chronic lung disease, cardiovascular disease or kidney disease and cancer. Approximately 20% had one of these comorbidities, and 32% had two or more diseases.

All of them announced their regular level of physical activity at least three times between March 2018 and March 2020, during their medical consultations.

Of these, 15% described themselves as inactive (0-10 minutes of physical activity per week); 7% said they respect the health recommendations (at least 150 minutes a week), and others said they did “some activity” (11 to 149 minutes a week).

9% of these patients were hospitalized and 2% died. After looking at differences by age, race, and comorbidities, those who were stable with COVID-19 had more than twice the risk of being hospitalized than those who were more active.

In addition, 73% were more likely to need resuscitation and were 2.5 times more likely to die from infection. However, the study does not provide evidence of a direct link between lack of exercise and the results obtained.