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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Pathogenesis and Therapy
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1410559
This article is part of the Research Topic Unraveling the long-term effects of COVID-19 View all articles

Accumulated subcutaneous fat in abdomen is associated with long COVID-19 symptoms among non-hospitalized patients：a prospective observational study

Provisionally accepted
Tingxin Li Tingxin Li 1,2Baoming He Baoming He 1*Yuping Liu Yuping Liu 1*Chen Wang Chen Wang 1*
  • 1 Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
  • 2 University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Long COVID-19 symptoms may have a variety of potential overlapping causes. In this study, we aimed to investigate the potential correlation between abdominal adipose tissue and long COVID-19 symptoms in non-hospitalized patients in China. This is a prospective observational study. 424 subjects, recovered from COVID-19 for 2-4 weeks, were enrolled and 408 subjects were finished the follow-up investigation at baseline, 8 th week and 12 th week.Physical measurements were collected. Kaplan-Meier analysis and cox regression analysis were carried out to assess the correlation. 72 subjects reported the long COVID-19 symptoms.The adjusted Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression analysis revealed a significant correlation with accumulated subcutaneous fat (SFA ≥ 2.0 dm 2 ) and the long COVID-19 symptoms (HR = 2.63, P < 0.001 for male, HR = 1.52, P = 0.048 for female). However, overweight and central obesity showed positive correlation only in women.This study suggested that accumulated subcutaneous fat in abdomen (SFA ≥ 2.0 dm 2 ) was an important positive factor associated with long COVID-19 symptoms among Chinese non-hospitalized patients. Large investigation and prospective studies are needed to validate the correlation in the future.

    Keywords: Long Covid, SARS-CoV-2, visceral fat, Subcutaneous Fat, non-hospitalized patients

    Received: 09 Apr 2024; Accepted: 02 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, He, Liu and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Baoming He, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan Province, China
    Yuping Liu, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan Province, China
    Chen Wang, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu, 611731, Sichuan Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.