London, June 18 (RHC)-- About 22 percent of the world population with underlying health conditions are at risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms if they are infected by the novel coronavirus, a new study finds.

According to the new study, whose results were published in The Lancet Global Health journal, an estimated 1.7 billion people - comprising 22 percent of the global population - “have at least one underlying condition that puts them at increased risk of severe COVID-19 if infected.”

The new research, which is based on a modeling study that uses data from 188 countries, did not take into account healthy older individuals without underlying health conditions, a group also known to be at risk because of their age.

It also excluded risk factors like poverty and obesity, which can influence an individual’s vulnerability to the contagious disease and access to due treatment.

The study defined 11 categories of underlying conditions that might increase the risk of severe COVID-19, mining data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and health agencies in the United States and Britain.

“Estimates of the number of individuals at increased risk were most sensitive to the prevalence of chronic kidney disease, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic respiratory disease,” it added.