"The more of these diagnoses that you have, the worse the outcomes. The underlying inflammation that is seen with metabolic syndrome may be the driver that is leading to these more severe cases," Denson added.
Researchers followed the outcomes for 287 patients hospitalised for Covid-19 from March 30 to April 5, which was the peak of the pandemic in New Orleans.
The mean age was 61 years and almost 57 per cent were women. The most common conditions were hypertension (80 per cent), obesity (65 per cent), diabetes (54 per cent), and low HDL (39 per cent).
The research team looked at two groups — those diagnosed with metabolic syndrome and those who weren't.
They tracked the outcomes including if patients were admitted to an intensive care unit, placed on a ventilator, developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), or died from the disease.
Almost 66 per cent of the patients in the study had metabolic syndrome.
When these cases were compared with patients without the condition, 56 per cent vs 24 per cent required the ICU, 48 per cent vs 18 per cent required ventilator support, 37 per cent vs 11 per cent developed ARDS, and 26 per cent vs 10 per cent died.
