Visceral adipose tissue and risk of COVID-19 susceptibility, hospitalization, and severity: A Mendelian randomization study

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly evolved as a global pandemic. Observational studies found that visceral adipose tissue (VAT) increased the likelihood of worse clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients. Whereas, whether VAT is causally associated with the susceptibility, hospitalization, or severity of COVID-19 remains unconfirmed. We aimed to investigate the causal associations between VAT and susceptibility, hospitalization, and severity of COVID-19.

Methods: We applied a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study to infer causal associations between VAT and COVID-19 outcomes. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms significantly associated with VAT were derived from a large-scale genome-wide association study. The random-effects inverse-variance weighted method was used as the main MR approach, complemented by three other MR methods. Additional sensitivity analyses were also performed.

Results: Genetically predicted higher VAT mass was causally associated with higher risks of COVID-19 susceptibility [odds ratios (ORs) = 1.13; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.09-1.17; P = 4.37 × 10^-12], hospitalization (OR = 1.51; 95% CI = 1.38-1.65; P = 4.14 × 10^-20), and severity (OR = 1.58; 95% CI = 1.38-1.82; P = 7.34 × 10^-11).

Conclusion: This study provided genetic evidence that higher VAT mass was causally associated with higher risks of susceptibility, hospitalization, and severity of COVID-19. VAT can be a useful tool for risk assessment in the general population and COVID-19 patients, as well as an important prevention target.

Keywords: COVID-19; Mendelian randomization; causal associations; risk; visceral adipose tissue.