Association between COVID-19 morbidity, mortality, and gross domestic product, overweight/ obesity, non-communicable diseases, vaccination rate: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: The spread of COVID-19 depends on a lot of social and economic factors. The aim: to study the influence of country’s gross domestic product, population prevalence of overweight/ obesity, NCD mortality, and vaccination on COVID-19 morbidity and mortality rates. Methods: A cross-sectional study with two phases: correlation-regression interrelations in 1) all world countries; 2) all world non-island countries. The study includes the following data from 218 world countries: COVID-19 morbidity/mortality rates, GDP per capita, the prevalence of overweight/ obesity, NCD mortality among adults (both sexes), people fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Results: An average percentage of the prevalence of overweight among adults in world countries by 2019 was 47.31 ± 15.99%, obesity 18.34 ± 9.64%, while the prevalence by 2016 were 39% and 13%, respectively. Overweight and obesity among adults during three years grew by 21.2% and 40.8%, respectively.Data from the world countries provide significant correlations (p 0.05). Conclusion: The study provides evidence of a significant impact of overweight/obesity prevalence on the increase in COVID-19 morbidity/mortality. Countries with higher GDP have a high overweight/obesity prevalence and possibility to get vaccinated.

Keywords

• COVID-19 mortality/morbidity
• Gross domestic product
• Overweight/obesity
• Non-communicable diseases
• A cross-sectional study