Obesity should be added to the risk factors for higher mortality among patients hospitalised for COVID-19, according to a UK study.

Researchers used data from 208 acute care hospitals in England, Wales and Scotland to characterise the clinical features of more than 20,000 patients hospitalised with COVID-19 during the first wave of the outbreak.

The median age of patients was 73 and the median time from onset of symptoms to presentation at hospital was four days, reported Dr Malcolm Semple of Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and the University of Liverpool and colleagues.

As in other studies, the most common symptoms were cough, fever, and shortness of breath, and 4% of patients reported no symptoms on admission, according to the BMJ paper.