How does Obesity Affect Influenza Risks?

By DocWire News Editors - Last Updated: April 10, 2023

Obesity may play an important role in one’s risk for contracting influenza, according to a study recently published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases. The researchers conducted this study to investigate obesity’s effect on viral shedding, building on the evidence regarding obesity-related complications with influenza infections.

Lead author, Aubree Gordon of the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and colleagues analyzed data from 1,783 people in 320 households from Managua, Nicaragua over the course of flu seasons between 2015 and 2017. Nose and throat samples were taken from participants and tested for viral RNA to determine the duration of the viral shedding period.

Flu: People with obesity may be contagious for a longer time https://t.co/QI3mpBnWYz

— DietDetectiveRD (@HeidiHmoretti) August 3, 2018

Gordon and her team found that symptomatic participants with obesity took 42% longer to shed influenza A virus than those who were nonobese, however no correlation was observed with influenza B. They also found that even in adults presenting few or no symptoms, influenza A’s shedding duration increased in duration by 104% in those with obesity.

Aubree Gordon notes, “This is the first real evidence that obesity might impact more than just disease severity […] It might directly impact transmission as well.”

Authors note that though influenza B is less likely to cause epidemics than type A, these results are limited in that they do not supply any relevant data linking obesity and influenza B. The team also acknowledges that this study found no effect of obesity on influenza shedding in children.

Further research must be conducted to affirm the connection between obesity and influenza shedding time, however these results suggest that influenza management should be particularly stressed in the obese population. Stacey Schultz-Cherry of the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis writes, “It is therefore even more important to develop effective strategies to prevent and control influenza, especially in the overweight and obese population.”