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Researchers at NTNU have made findings showing that obesity and smoking increase the risk of severe COVID-19 disease. NTNU professor Erik Solligård and the Norwegian Cancer Society are now calling on the National Institute of Public Health to put smoking back on the list of risk factors for severe covid-19 disease.
Solligård is also a chief physician in intensive care medicine and works at the Gemini Center for Sepsis Research in Trondheim. Together with Professor Jan Kristian Damås, postdoctoral fellow Tormod Rogne and British researchers, he has investigated risk factors for covid-19 disease.
The study has been published in the medical journal Circulation, writes NRK and Forskning.no, who first mentioned the case.
– We have shown that there is a clear connection between obesity and an increased risk of severe covid-19 disease. We have also shown that there is a clear link between smoking and an increased risk of severe COVID-19 disease. These combinations also increase the risk of developing sepsis, which has a mortality rate of 10 percent, Solligård tells Dagbladet.
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Risk list
Initially, the National Institute of Public Health had listed smoking as one of the risk factors for severe covid-19 disease. FHI chief physician Preben Aavitsland explains to Dagbladet why they decided to remove smokers from the list.
“The smokers were withdrawn because it was not clear whether they really had an increased risk of a serious course of coronary infection if they were otherwise healthy,” Aavitsland told Dagbladet.
NTNU professor Solligård is clear that he believes smoking should be put back on the list.
– Yes, it should definitely be viewed based on the findings of this study. This group is at increased risk of developing severe COVID-19 disease, Solligård says.
Get support
It is supported by the Secretary General of the Norwegian Cancer Society, Ingrid Stenstadvold Ross.
– I think the authorities have done too little for smokers during this period. Quitting smoking is one of the most important things you can do to reduce your risk of disease, and therefore it is especially important to contribute during a pandemic, Ross tells Dagbladet.
She believes that the government should use the crown situation to get as many people as possible to stop the smoke.
– We hope that smoking will be included in the list of risk factors of FHI for covid-19 and we believe that it will have important consequences if it does not. Especially since it gives an important signal, which can prevent people from starting to smoke. At the same time, we believe that the government should seize the opportunity to try to get as many people as possible to quit smoking. This by informing more and making free smoking cessation aids such as gum and nicotine patches.
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Vaccine order
Solligård explains that the researchers behind the study have used the Mendelian randomization method, which consists of analyzing genetic information to discover risk factors for a disease. In working with the study, they have used large amounts of data from population studies in Norway and England.
It is expected that a corona vaccine will be approved during 2020 and that Norway can start vaccination in early 2021. Solligård believes that overweight and smokers should take priority in the vaccination order.
– Yes. These groups are at high risk of developing severe COVID-19 disease, which requires hospitalization and intensive care. They are also at higher risk of dying from covid-19. So it is quite clear that we must protect that part of the population, says Solligård.
Chief Physician Aavitsland says the NIPH will further evaluate the list of risks and the order of vaccination.
– We are constantly considering this list and will do so again, also in light of this study. We will consider the order of vaccination later, in light of the latest knowledge about when vaccination will begin, says Aavitsland.
