For many diseases, overweight and obesity are risk factors. But now a study shows that a higher BMI may be linked to higher survival rates in patients hospitalized for severe bacterial infections.

The population-based study involved observations, over a nine-month period, of all 2,196 individual adults receiving care for suspected severe bacterial infection at Skaraborg Hospital in Skövde. The researchers followed the patients in this study population over time, during and after their hospital stay.

The results show that the raised chances of survival were associated with a higher body mass index (BMI) in both the short and long term, at 28 days and one year after hospitalization respectively. The differences in survival rates were clear. In the normal-weight group, 26 percent were dead within a year. The corresponding figures in the groups with higher BMI were 9–17 percent.

This study has now been published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Release date: 20 May 2021
Source: University of Gothenburg

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