Nutrition in the Actual COVID-19 Pandemic. A Narrative Review.

The pandemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has shocked world health authorities generating a global health crisis. The present study discusses the main finding in nutrition sciences associated with COVID-19 in the literature. We conducted a consensus critical review using primary sources, scientific articles, and secondary bibliographic indexes, databases, and web pages. The method was a narrative literature review of the available literature regarding nutrition interventions and nutrition-related factors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The main search engines used in the present research were PubMed, SciELO, and Google Scholar. We found how the COVID-19 lockdown promoted unhealthy dietary changes and increases in body weight of the population, showing obesity and low physical activity levels as increased risk factors of COVID-19 affection and physiopathology. In addition, hospitalized COVID-19 patients presented malnutrition and deficiencies in vitamin C, D, B12 selenium, iron, omega-3, and medium and long-chain fatty acids highlighting the potential health effect of vitamin C and D interventions. Further investigations are needed to show the complete role and implications of nutrition both in the prevention and in the treatment of patients with COVID-19.

Nutritional status assessment in patients with Covid-19 after discharge from the intensive care unit.

INTRODUCTION: The nutritional diagnosis and early nutritional management of COVID-19 patients must be integrated into the overall therapeutic strategy. The aim of our study is to assess the nutritional status of patients with COVID-19 after a stay in intensive care, to describe the prevalence of undernutrition, to determine the factors influencing undernutrition and to describe the nutritional management. TOOLS AND METHODS: This is a descriptive observational study of adult patients admitted to the endocrinology service for additional care after a stay in intensive care during the period from April 17, 2020 to May 26, 2020. The assessment tool used was the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA). RESULTS: Our study included 41 patients; the average age of the patients was 55 years, 51.2% had a severe or critical form of COVID-19, 75.6% stayed in intensive care, 12.2% had a loss of autonomy. The average BMI was 25.2 kg/m2 (17-42 kg/m2), 42.5% were overweight, 61% had weight loss, 26.2% had weight loss greater than 10%, 14.6% of our patients were undernourished, 65.9% were at risk of undernutrition, 19.5% had hypoalbuminemia, 17.1% had hypoprotidemia, 19.5% hypocalcemia, 34.1% anemia, 12.2% hypomagnesemia and 51.2% had a deficiency in vitamin D. A positive correlation was found between poor nutritional status and a longer stay in intensive care (>5 days) (p = 0.011) and lymphopenia (p = 0,02). CONCLUSION: Despite a personalized diet, 14.6% of patients presented undernutrition. Particular attention should be paid to patients with a long stay in intensive care.