The covid epidemic in young people? For the CDC it is linked to obesity
We often talk about Covid in young people, in children. Since this is the topic of the day, let's tackle it here too, based on the data of those countries that, with greater generosity, make them available: the USA.
About 600 Americans under the age of 18 have died of COVID-19 during the pandemic. A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) took a closer look at young people who were hospitalized for COVID-19 from July to August, while the Delta variant wave was raging, and found that normally healthy young people continue to evade the worst of COVID-19.
The study found that the majority of young people suffering from severe COVID-19 outcomes had poor health conditions, of which obesity was the most common, especially for adolescents.
"Among patients aged 12-17, 61.4% suffered from obesity," according to the study, "60.5% of whom had severe obesity."
The study looked at six U.S. hospitals, all in the south, and evaluated 915 cases of COVID-19 in adolescents who required hospitalization. The vast majority have been hospitalized for COVID-19, although some have also had other infections. Of the 713 patients who were hospitalized for COVID-19, two-thirds had at least one underlying health problem. For the adolescent cohort – patients at least 12 years of age – the obesity rate was 61.4%. The severe obesity rate was 60.5%. Only one of the eligible patients had been vaccinated and 11 patients died.
This obviously means that COVID-19 can be a deadly disease, even for young people, but vaccine status and overall health are extremely important variables. The fact remains that healthy children who do not have underlying health conditions, especially obesity, are overall safe from the negative health outcomes of COVID-19.
"Compared to patients without obesity, those with obesity required higher levels and longer duration of care," the study authors wrote.
"These findings are consistent with previous reports and underscore the importance of obesity and other medical conditions as risk factors for severe COVID-19 in children and adolescents."
One of the best ways to protect yourself from obesity is to encourage healthy eating and active lifestyles among the youth population. Exercise is not a cure-all, but children who play sports or engage in physical activity are less likely to become obese. Physically active children tend to have better diets than those who stay at home all day, glued to the screen, perhaps because it is easier to give the last X Box as a gift than to prepare a healthy dinner for the children. How easier it is to get a shot than to teach a healthy lifestyle …
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The article The covid epidemic in young people? For the CDC it is linked to obesity comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/lepidemia-covid-nei-giovani-per-il-cdc-e-legata-allobesita/ on Wed, 05 Jan 2022 07:00:49 +0000.