Division of Pulmonary Disease & Critical Care Medicine

Department of Medicine

Anne Dixon, M.A., B.M.B.Ch., professor of medicine, director of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and director of the Vermont Lung Center

(FEBRUARY 9, 2023) Anne Dixon, M.A., B.M.B.Ch., professor of medicine, director of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and director of the Vermont Lung Center, commented to The (Lowell, Massachusetts) Sun about a new study led by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health that found that a healthy lifestyle could lower the risk of long COVID.

Among six lifestyle factors, maintaining a healthy body weight and getting adequate sleep were the ones most strongly associated with a lower risk of long COVID.

The results of a macro analysis published in Obesity Reviews indicated that obese individuals who caught COVID were 113 percent more likely than people of healthy weight to land in the hospital, 74 percent more likely to be admitted to an ICU, and 48 percent more likely to die. The study explained that the biology of obesity includes impaired immunity, chronic inflammation, and blood that’s prone to clot, all of which can lead to COVID-19 complications.

This “may be one reason for the devastating impact of COVID-19 in the United States, where 40 percent of adults are obese,” said Dixon, a physician-scientist who studies obesity and lung disease at the University of Vermont.