Carrying out statements within the scope of World Obesity Day, General Surgery Department Faculty Member Assoc. Dr. Erkan Yardimci said that the COVID-19 pandemic, which negatively affected the entire world in terms of health, socio-economic and psychological aspects and caused many people to die, further increased the already high obesity rates.
Bezmialem Vakıf University, Department of General Surgery Faculty Member Assoc. Dr. Erkan Yardimir indicated, "In addition to reasons such as quarantine and isolation measures, social distance rules, restriction of individuals, worsening psychosocial and socio-economic conditions, increase in impulsive eating behaviors, increase in emotional eating habits to eliminate negative emotions and the decrease in physical activities has led to an increase in obesity rates.
There Are 20 Million Obese In Turkey
Noting that obesity was among the top preventable health problems in the world even before the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing numerically every year, Assoc. Dr. Erkan Uyan said, “According to the World Health Organization data, there are approximately 2 billion overweight or obese individuals in the world, approximately 3 million people each year. It is stated that people die due to obesity and diseases related to overweight. In our country, one out of every three people is in the obesity group and there are about 20 million obese individuals.
Mentioning the difficulty of the treatment process in obese individuals, Assoc. Dr. Erkan Uyan said, “In obese individuals with COVID-19 positive who require an intensive care unit factors such as difficult intubation, inability or difficulty in testing commonly used tests such as tomography due to the weight limit in imaging devices, problems in patient care (position, cleaning, etc.), difficulty in transporting patients negatively affect the diagnosis and treatment process.
Stating that obesity negatively affects many systems in our body and paves the way for many health problems, Assoc. Dr. Erkan Yardimci expresses, “At the beginning of obesity-related diseases type 2 diabetes, respiratory system diseases, cardiovascular diseases, hyperlipidemia and some cancers come, and joint diseases, infertility, skin diseases, infection problems can also be observed. COVID-19 infection is much more severe especially in individuals with diabetes, cardiovascular and lung diseases, and morbidly obese individuals.
Obese Individuals are at Risk
While the research on the effect of the COVID-19 vaccine on individuals continues, interesting results have emerged from the research conducted in Italy on the relationship between COVID-19 and obesity. Obese individuals in the risk group were observed to have lower antibody levels compared to healthy individuals.
Bezmialem Vakif University, Department of General Surgery, Faculty Member, Assoc. Dr. Erkan Yardimci, commented on the results of the research as follows:
“It is known that the response to influenza and some other vaccines is less in obese individuals. With the start of vaccination related to COVID-19 all over the world, the effects of COVID-19 vaccines on individuals began to come to light. Italian researchers conducted a study on the effect of the COVID-19 vaccine in obese individuals. In their study of vaccinated healthcare workers, they were faced with the conclusion that antibody production fell by half in individuals with a body mass index (BMI) above 30 and described as obese. Therefore, it is stated that an additional booster dose may be needed to ensure that obese individuals are adequately protected against COVID-19.
