The restaurant industry lived particularly close to the edge.

During the five years that ended in 2019, McDonald’s and Yum Brands, which operates KFC and Taco Bell, made payments to shareholders that were equivalent to a third of the $145 billion in pandemic relief that the industry requested, an analysis by Hindenburg Research for The New York Times found. The industry did not secure the money it sought, but individual restaurant owners are expected to get funds from government programs.

Well before the pandemic, Yum repeatedly flagged the mass spread of diseases as a top “risk factor” in its annual reports, warning over a year ago that such outbreaks could “severely disrupt” operations and harm its business and finances.

Yum also returned cash to its shareholders, paying $15 billion to investors in buybacks and dividends over the past five years. And it didn’t just spend profits to make the payments; it borrowed to finance them. At the end of last year, Yum’s debt was more than twice the size of its assets, according to Hindenburg — a huge leap from 40 percent of assets five years earlier. During the same period, the compensation of Greg Creed, its recently retired chief executive, totaled $66 million.

To have more cash on hand during the pandemic, the company this month issued $600 million in bonds whose interest rates were almost twice what the company previously paid. It also drew $525 million from an existing credit line last month.

Virginia Ferguson, a representative for Yum, said a change in the structure of its business and the strong performance of its restaurants had provided much of the cash to pay for buybacks. The use of extra debt to fund the purchases was “measured,” she said in an email.

Yum, which said last month that it had suspended its buyback program, did not request government funds for itself, Ms. Ferguson said. She added that the small businesses that run Yum franchises would qualify for government relief. Owners of franchises in chains like Yum’s and McDonald’s can apply for aid made available through the legislation passed last month in response to the pandemic.

“McDonald’s Corporation has not, and will not, ask for assistance from any government entity, nor seek any deferral of our tax payments,” said Michael Gonda, a company spokesman. He said the company had halted share buybacks, cut spending by $1 billion and borrowed more money.