Patients may be more likely to be hospitalized due to the flu or another respiratory virus if they are underweight or at the higher end of the obesity scale, according to a recent study.
Observational data for the study came from six hospitals in Mexico, and they covered 4,778 people with symptoms of a flu-like illness.
Some of these people received their treatment in the hospital, and some did as outpatients.
The results of the study showed that:
43% of the people had a severe flu-like illness
16.3% tested positive for flu
55.2% tested positive for another respiratory virus
28.5% “had no respiratory virus isolated”