Observational studyCritical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine2020
Epidemiology and outcomes of obese critically ill patients in Australia and New Zealand.
Observational study in Critical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Body mass index and hospital mortality in mechanically ventilated patients with acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure: A retrospective cohort study.Critical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine · 2026Article
- The relationship between a lower body mass index and reintubation among critically ill patients: a multicenter retrospective cohort study.Journal of anesthesia, analgesia and critical care · 2026Article
- Intensive care admissions for adults with treated kidney failure in Australia: A national retrospective cohort study.Critical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine · 2025Article
- The impact of body mass index on long-term survival after ICU admission due to COVID-19: A retrospective multicentre study.Critical care and resuscitation : journal of the Australasian Academy of Critical Care Medicine · 2023Article
- In silico evaluation of a beta-lactam dosing guideline among adults with serious infections.Pharmacotherapy · 2023Article
- Goals of Care, Critical Care Utilization and Clinical Outcomes in Obese Patients Admitted under General Medicine.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Associations of body mass index, fasting insulin, and inflammation with mortality: a prospective cohort study.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2022Article
- Associations between low body mass index and mortality in patients with sepsis: A retrospective analysis of a cohort study in Japan.PloS one · 2021Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThe apparent survival benefit of being overweight or obese in critically ill patients (the obesity paradox) remains controversial. Our aim is to report on the epidemiology and outcomes of obesity within a large heterogenous critically ill adult population.
designRetrospective observational cohort study.
settingIntensive care units (ICUs) in Australia and New Zealand.
participantsCritically ill patients who had both height and weight recorded between 2010 and 2018. OUTCOME MEASURES: Hospital mortality in each of five body mass index (BMI) strata. Subgroups analysed included diagnostic category, gender, age, ventilation status and length of stay.
resultsData were available for 381 855 patients, 68% of whom were overweight or obese. Increasing level of obesity was associated with lower unadjusted hospital mortality: underweight (11.9%), normal weight (7.7%), overweight (6.4%), class I obesity (5.4%), and class II obesity (5.3%). After adjustment, mortality was lowest for patients with class I obesity (adjusted odds ratio, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.74- 0.82). Adverse outcomes with class II obesity were only seen in patients with cardiovascular and cardiac surgery ICU admission diagnoses, where mortality risk rose with progressively higher BMIs.
conclusionWe describe the epidemiology of obesity within a critically ill Australian and New Zealand population and confirm that some level of obesity is associated with lower mortality, both overall and across a range of diagnostic categories and important subgroups. Further research should focus on potential confounders such as nutritional status and the appropriateness of BMI in isolation as an anthropometric measure in critically ill patients.
Indexed as
Identifiers
32102641PMC10692468W3011679371What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.