Visceral fat shows the strongest association with the need of intensive care in patients with COVID-19. (Special Issue: COVID-19 in metabolism.)

Background: Obesity was recently identified as a major risk factor for worse COVID-19 severity, especially among the young The reason why its impact seems to be less pronounced in the elderly may be due to the concomitant presence of other comorbidities However, all reports only focus on BMI, an indirect marker of body fat Aim To explore the impact on COVID-19 severity of abdominal fat as a marker of body composition easily collected in patients undergoing a chest CT scan