Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who are overweight had better long-term survival than thinner patients following hospitalization for exacerbations in a small retrospective study.
In a newly published analysis of outcomes among 57 COPD patients following hospitalization, 5-year overall survival among overweight patients (i.e., with a body mass index [BMI] ?25 kg/m2) was more than double that of patients whose weight was normal or who were underweight (74% versus 31%).
Several earlier studies have also linked overweight and obesity to longer COPD survival, suggesting that the so-called “obesity paradox” reported in heart disease and several other chronic diseases extends to the lung disorder.
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